COSTS AND SAVINGS

As an average NSW household you can receive a discount off the upfront cost of the system and once the system is installed, you can sell all your solar electricity back to the electricity grid at a premium rate.

Electricity prices continue to rise astronomically with seemingly no end in sight. By 2013 it will have increased by at least 20% and potentially up to 62%*. 

Instead of paying your energy company, let them pay you. Solar power will not only save you money, it will make you money.

*IPART NSW – view full report here
 

Step 1:  Save money on your upfront costs

Solar Credit Scheme – Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)

Renewable Energy Certificates are awarded to households by the federal government for installing solar power systems and can either be traded or cashed in at the point of purchase for an up-front discount. The price of the certificates fluctuates according to market value but is generally between $30 and $40 per REC ($630 - $840 per kW installed). 

Each REC represents one megawatt hour of electricity that will be produced from your solar power system, over a 15 year period.

A 1kW solar power system (6 solar panels), will produce 21 megawatts of electricity over 15 years and therefore its REC value is 21.  A 1.5kW system (8 panels) receives 32 RECs. A 2kW system (12 panels) receives 42 RECs, and so on.

STEP 2: Get paid for your electricity

NSW Solar Bonus Scheme – Feed-in Tariffs (FIT)

Once your solar power system is installed, you can earn money from your panels with ANY electricity created from your solar power system on your roof going back into the power grid earning you money off your electricity bill (and in some cases generating a credit!).

This is the NSW government’s gross feed-in tariff (Gross FIT) and applies to NSW & ACT. Other states in Australia operate under a net feed-in tariff (Net FIT), whereby only surplus electricity is paid for. A Gross FIT means more money for your home and the NSW Solar Bonus is currently the most generous available in the country.

Under the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme, your energy provider is required to pay you a minimum of 60 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated from your solar power system (4 times the market value!).

For the average Australian home installing a 1.5kW system, this equates to approx. $1500 per annum. Obviously, the larger the system, the more mone you will receive under the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme. The Scheme is capped for system sizes up to 10kW.

The Rate of the feed-in tariff is set by the government in each state and is the minimum at which the energy retailers are required to pay for electricity generated by a solar power system (either under a net or gross FIT). The energy retailers, can however, pay a higher rate than what the government has set, as a way to pay its customer even more for their solar electricity.

This is currently the case in NSW with Energy Australia offering its customers $0.66 per kilowatt-hour and Origin Energy offering $0.68 cents per kilowatt*.

*As at April 2010. Contact your energy retailer for latest figures.

TOTAL POTENTIAL COSTS AND SAVINGS FOR AN AVERAGE HOUSE IN NSW