Solar Power
7 Advantages of Installing Solar Power Now
- Be self-sufficient – If you own your own home or business, you can take control of your energy costs. The environmental positives of solar power are undeniable and when you factor in the savings the decision becomes a “no-brainer”.
- Enjoy free power – On average, the investment cost of installing your solar system is usually paid off after three and half years. After that, you can look forward to many years of free power from the sun.
- Smart investment opportunity – The return on solar photovoltaic (PV) systems is much better than the equivalent money invested in stock market shares, property or any high-interest savings account. A well-designed solar system usually provides a Return on Investment (ROI) of over 20%. At Home and Energy we see ROIs of 20-45% for residential (with many around the 30% mark) and 25-50% for commercial. Knowing your energy profile can accurately calculate your return.
- Reduce carbon emissions – Solar energy uses clean energy produced by the sun. This reduces the need for dirty coal-fired power generation plants and the environmentally damaging carbon emissions they create.
- Join the crowd – Over four million Australians and 1.7 million homes in Australia are solar powered. That’s about one in seven Australians who now enjoy being environmentally conscious and saving money at the same time. The vast majority of solar power systems have been installed in the last three years because solar power is still subsidised by the Federal Government grant and the price of PV is still decreasing.
- Grab an incentive while it lasts – You never know when the current Small-scale Technology Certificates (STC) incentive will be removed, and the cheaper solar gets the more likely the incentive is to end. When the incentive does end you won’t be able to enjoy a $4,000 contribution from the government to pay for your solar installer.
- Sell power back to the grid – On top of the government incentive, Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) are still available for the excess power your system produces. Your retailer will have a Solar FiT plan that allows you to feed back into the grid when you have an excess of generated solar and get paid per kilowatt hour at their determined rate as a credit. Currently there are rates between 16-20c. That’s another way the government encourages us to use clean energy and become self-sufficient. They actually pay homes or businesses with solar power for any excess power generated through solar but not used. The FiTs are usually quite low and an average house will probably only generate a small amount of excess energy by installing solar panels. However, it still helps reduce your power bill more.
More about the solar power credits scheme and how to organise it
Depending on its size and your location, your solar system is eligible for a number of Small Technology Certificates (STC’s). These STCs have a live market value and are usually deducted from the invoice total as a cash discount to the client.
To enable this discount, the STCs will be signed over to the installer who will then trade these STCs to various Clearing Houses.
Alternatively, the client may want to process the STCs themselves, in which case there would be no cash discount available on that system
The STC or Federal Government incentive is set to expire in 2030 and the value of the STC calculation decreases every year on January 1.
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Thinking of going solar in your home or business?
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