A lot of people think that the days of generous solar incentives are long gone.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
In fact, under the current STC (Small-scale Technology Certificates) program, households that install solar are eligible to receive up to $4,650 off the up-front price of the system*.
So why then are there people in Australia who think that going solar is not worth it because the government cut all the funding?
The reason is because of a pretty simple misunderstanding.
When people say that there were big cuts to the financial incentives, they are thinking of the feed-in tariff. The feed-in tariff is the money you receive when your solar system produces energy you cannot use and pushes it back into the grid.
4 or 5 years ago, right across Australia, the feed-in tariff was very generous and many households made a lot of very good money from it.
This was all relative, however, because at the time installing a solar system was also very, very expensive.
Back then, a baby-sized 1.5kW solar system would have cost you in the region of $10,000.
Nowadays, because of huge advances made in solar technology and huge competition in China helping driving prices down, you can get a big family-sized 5kW system for as little as half that.
These price drops have been so dramatic that many solar systems pay for themselves in electricity savings in as little as 5 years.
The return on investment of solar has actually never been better than right now.
Check out the below table to see what incentive is available according to system size installed.
*The incentive amount is based on the system size installed.
**Incentive estimate based on calculation of 124 STCs for 6kw at $37.50/kW. The amount of STCs received depends on the location of your installation. The price of STCs is calculated based on market value and is subject to change. Check online to get the most accurate price.
Why you shouldn’t wait to go solar
Now, I did mention that the current financial incentive for solar is up to $4,650 off the up-front price of the system.
What you should be aware of is that this price can vary, a lot.
The STC program is designed so that big polluters can buy these credits from those who generate clean electricity, ie. residential solar systems. So that they can make up their quota of clean electricity generation.
Because the price they pay you is determined by a market, when demand is low, the price drops.
A few years back, huge demand for solar installations (and subsequent over-supply of STCs) caused the price of STCs to drop to less than half of the current price. Meaning the incentive available for installs also halved.
If you want to cash in on the current unprecedented high prices of STCs, then lock in your rebate today.
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