Those living in Tasmania can receive financial government assistance through Federal rebates that support the installation of solar PV systems. These include a discount off the price when you purchase a solar PV system, as well as the government reimbursing you for the excess power your system produces that you don’t use during the day.
Tasmania Currently has no state-based government rebates. Further information regarding the Federal Government rebates are detailed below.
Credits for excess power: In Tasmania, you will receive a credit on your electricity bill for any unused solar power that is generated by your system and sent back to the grid. This is called a Feed-in Tariff (FiT). The minimum feed-in tariff is set by the Tasmanian Economic Regulator, and is currently at 9.3 cents per kilowatt hour. However, the feed-in tariff rate varies between electricity providers. You can visit the Australian Energy Regulator’s Energy Made Easy website to find out what feed-in tariffs electricity retailers are currently offering in Tasmania.
The greatest benefit that your solar system will give you however is not from your credits for excess power, but rather by offsetting your daytime electricity consumption. For every unit of electricity your solar power system produces and that you consume at the premise saves you from having to purchase that unit from your electricity retailer.
Reduction in purchase price: When you install a solar system, you generate Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), which are sometimes referred to as a ‘Government Solar Rebate’. You’ll receive 1 STC for every Megawatt of energy your system is expected to produce until 2031.
For example, a 5kW system (approx 17 panels) will produce around 88MWh worth of electricity over the 11-year period until 2031, meaning you are entitled to 88 STCs.
Once your system has been installed and the STCs have been registered, they can be sold to recover a portion of the cost of purchasing your solar PV system. Given the complexity surrounding creating and selling STCs, it’s common practice to assign the right to create the STCs to your TAS solar provider, in exchange for an upfront discount off the full, or ‘true’, system price.
STCs currently trade for around $37 each, which means you’d receive around $3,250 discount off the full, or ‘true’, cost of a 5kW system.
Infinite Energy will quote a price to you that is inclusive of the STC discount. This is the final price of your system. STC’s reduce every year on the 1st of January (and will do so until they are completely phased out), so it’s best to avoid holding off installing your system to acquire the maximum amount.
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