I have just received a letter from the “Solar Service Group” offering me to participate in a subsidised field trial program “to demonstrate the effectiveness of new and exciting battery technology…” The letter condintues “Pparticipants in this program will receive almost half the total cost of their solar batteries subsidised and in turn will be asked to provide feedback on the overall impact to their home energy costs, as well as providing feed back on any other benefits they receive over the following 12 months” Is this a clever marketing exercise, or is it genuine???
Based on the occassional similar marketing gimmicks, I would punt it is a genuine clever marketing exercise 
To form your own opinion, what is the total out of pocket they want and what is the street (real not rrp) price for the kit, and why would any company pay or discount $1,000s for feedback that they would get for free from both very happy and very dissatisfied customers anyway?
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This is from the Solar Service Group website:
Solar Service Group are an independently owned, trusted Australian company that specialise in service, maintenance and repairs of PV Solar Systems nationally. With over 20 years’ industry experience and a genuine focus on our customer’s experience, as an independent Service Provider, we are a company you can trust.
They also retail and install battery systems.
The only info on battery trial in NSW I could find is this one…Collombatti Area Battery Storage Trial
Based on this and unless you reside in this trial area, I would tend to agree with @PhilT that it is a ‘clever marketing exercise’ to make thise who read the letter think they are special and part of some sort of trial. It is bordering on deceptive advertising if it is.
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I’d stay well away from them.
I mentioned this to my boss (I work in the solar industry) and he said that they are dodgy and they are known to some of our wholesale people - they increase the price a LOT, then offer a “subsidy”.
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It almost sounds too good to be true 
Don’t get (sun)burnt
(apologies - couldn’t resist either …)
Edited to add: probably another excellent example (based on @Gordon’s input) where a few quotes might reveal the answer. Similar to other big investments, check their references too …
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It is exactly the same offer that some solar-panel scamsters offered to me in 1978, 1979 and 1980 (they kept coming back). Don’t fall for it. Pay the proper price instead.
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It is a blatant marketing exercise. They are lying about the cost being half or less because it is actually considerably more expensive than what you can buy this product for elsewhere.
If we had a functioning ACCC this company would be stopped but we do not. Bring back Alan Fels who did the job for the community rather than business. The current management do not care and that tells a story.
