Victorian Solar Rebate
The Victorian Government has introduced the Solar Homes program to help Victorian households cut their electricity bills.
- Eligible owner occupier households can claim up to a maximum rebate of $1,400 for a PV solar system as well as a $1,400 interest free loan under the VIC solar panel rebate.
- If considering replacing your existing electric hot water you may be eligible for $1,000 under the Solar hot water rebate.
- Up to $1,400 for Landlords under the Solar rebate for rental properties scheme to install a system your investment properties with the option of an additional $1,850 interest free loan.
- For customers with existing solar or if considering a battery sooner rather than later there is the Solar battery rebate of up to $2,950 off the cost of a battery installation.
Households will only be eligible for one rebate under the Solar Homes package (i.e. a household that accesses a battery rebate cannot claim a solar PV rebate). However, you can receive both the hot water and solar rebate.
Rebates are available for systems installed from 19 August 2018. More info on the Vic rebate – https://www.solar.vic.gov.au/
Solar for Business
The Victorian state government has recently announced they will be launching an incentive for small businesses to install solar. While it is early days if it is something that interests yourself as a business please click on this link to register your interest and keep an eye out on our website for any updates. 4
STC Incentives for small-scale solar (Residential & commercial under 100kW)
The SRES was developed to assist households, small business and community groups with the cost of installing a solar PV system.
The SRES works by issuing Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCS) to homes & businesses that install systems under 100 kilowatts (kW) in capacity.
STCs are based on the expected output of the solar system over a set period (although most systems can be expected to have a functional lifespan of up to 30 years). They are currently based on an 11yr deeming period.
At Solar Central we offer the STC incentive as a point of sale discount reducing your out of pocket cost.
The STC incentive does vary and is based on system size and location. The larger the system the more the STC’s are worth!
You can calculate how many STCs a solar system in your location would produce with the Clean Energy Regulator’s STC Calculator.
VEECS (Victorian energy efficiency certificates)
The Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) is the scheme which sets up the rules for the creation and sale of VEECs. There are 10 categories of activities which, if undertaken, can result in the creation of VEECs and the associated discount which is passed on to energy users. 1 VEEC represents 1 tonne of CO2-E abatement, calculated by comparing the difference between the energy use of the new product (e.g. an air conditioner), and the baseline’ energy use (essentially, the amount of energy that would have been used if the new high-efficiency product had not been installed.) There are free VEEC calculators available on the Essential Services Commission (ESC) website.
The price of VEECs varies according to supply and demand. The greater the energy efficiency gain of the upgraded product, the more VEECs are issued. This value comes through to the end customer in the form of a discount, which is recouped by whoever provides the product/service (see below).
Some of these categories are applicable only to households, some only to businesses, and some to both. If you plan on replacing your electric hot water system with either a Heat pump or solar hot water system you will be eligible to receive the VEEC incentive. More info can be found at – https://www.veet.vic.gov.au