Financial assistance by the Federal Government is provided to South Australian residents installing a solar PV system. This includes a reduced amount off the total price of a system, as well as credits to their electricity bill for any unused solar power generated by their system.
The SA also provides rebates for solar and battery storage on a state-based level. We’ve provided an overview of each of the rebates below, including details of eligibility criteria.
Credits for excess power: In South Australia, 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). South Australian residents can receive either a retailer feed-in tariff or a distributor feed-in tariff. Retailer feed-in tariffs are set by the electricity retailer and will vary between each company. Current feed-in tariffs range from 10.0 cents per kilowatt hour to 15.0 cents per kilowatt hour. 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 South Australia.
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 in your South Australian home, 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 SA 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.
Solar battery rebate: The South Australian Home Battery Scheme assists households to access state government subsidies and loans of up to $4,000 to pay for the installation of home battery systems. Up to 40,000 households are eligible for the scheme, including those who are renting. In addition, households can apply for finance through the Australian Government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation to purchase new or additional solar panels as well as the battery system.
Solar PV and battery assistance: The Virtual Power Plant initiative is an initiative created by the South Australian Government and Tesla, supporting over 50,000 homes. A virtual power plant is created by a network of home solar PV and battery systems simultaneously working together to generate, store and feed energy back into the grid. Energy from the home solar PV and battery systems installed will provide electricity for your house, and any excess, unused energy generated by the system will be automatically fed back into the grid, providing additional energy to the rest of the state when necessary.
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