Back in August, the Victorian government made a big announcement, revealing a program to help Victorian households cut their electricity bills. The Solar Homes Package, delivered by the newly established Solar Victoria, was said to include:
- $1.24B for solar panels on 650,000 homes
- $60M for solar hot water for 60,000 homes
- $40M to support the purchase of batteries for 10,000 homes
- $82M for solar panels on 50,0000 rental homes.
- Interest-free loans
What is the situation now? The latest updates here:
Solar panels rebate
The solar panels rebate opened early September and applies retrospectively to systems installed on or after 19 August 2018. As you may know, it provides a rebate on the cost of PV solar systems up to $2,225. 24,000 households until June 2019 were first targeted. The re-elected Labor government has extended this rebate to 650,000 homeowners over the next 10 years, as promised in August.
Daniel Andrews recently announced that nearly 7,000 Victorian households have installed solar panels since, amounting to more than $3.4 million in rebates. Lily D’Ambrosio, Minister for Solar Homes said around 1,600 households had already received a rebate and highlighted the creation of thousands of jobs across the state.
The rebate is reported being particularly effective in Melbourne’s growing suburbs especially in Tarneit with 212 installations followed by Clyde North (161), Craigieburn (131), Truganina (123) and Cranbourne East (98).
Solar hot water service rebate
The solar hot water service rebate opened for application three days ago (February 18th 2019) and applies retrospectively to systems installed on or after 19 August 2018.
Up to 60,000 eligible owner-occupiers can now claim up to $1,000 rebate on solar hot water systems. The solar hot water rebate applies to installations that replace an existing hot water system that was at least three years old (from the date of purchase) and it’s not available to new build homes (new Class 1 buildings). Households can only access one rebate type under the solar homes package (i.e. a household that accesses a Solar PV rebate cannot claim a solar hot water rebate and vice versa).
In a statement, the Andrews Labor government said the solar hot water rebate could save households between $160 and $400 a year, offering an alternative path to home energy savings to households unsuited to rooftop PV.
The Solar Homes Program is currently made up of those two rebates only. Solar Victoria has not communicated on the other commitments yet and is working on providing further details over the coming months. Read the Media Release about Solar for rentals here (Nov 18) and the Media Release about energy storage here (Spt 18).
Source: Solar Victoria website and https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/thousands-of-victorian-homes-save-millions-on-solar/
Register now to the solar panels rebate and get half-price solar! Register here.
For more information visit Solar Victoria website or contact Energis on contactus@energis.com.auor 1300 782 217
