As the days start getting longer, it will soon be time to dust off the cozzy and clean the BBQ.

For many Solaray customers, the summer months are also when their power bills are close to $0 despite having the pool pumps running and the air conditioner on most afternoons.

From October, a solar system in Sydney will begin outputting significantly more solar power, often enough to run everything in the home during the daytime, plus generate excess solar power that is stored in a battery to then use at night or to send off to the grid that earns a credit on your power bill.

Don’t miss out on the best months of the year for solar

Putting solar on the backburner until after summer could cost you over $1000 in savings on your power bill.

An 6kW solar system could save you up to around $1000 by the end of summer, while a 10kW system could save you up to around $2000!

That’s assuming all the solar power is used in the home as it is generated, and that your cost of electricity is 25 cents per kWh. Many households are now paying a lot more than that due to the skyrocketing price of electricity, especially if you are on time of use billing.

Here are the average daily output figures of a 6kW solar system in Sydney, by month, provided by the Clean Energy Council:

The solar rebate reduces on the 31st of December

When the solar rebate was introduced, one small-scale technology certificate (STC) was issued for every estimated 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a solar system would generate over period of 15 years – until 2030.

However with 2030 fast approaching the subsidy started being phased out and now the deeming period is reduced by one year, each year.

For solar power systems installed this year, the deeming period is 12 years, in 2020 it will be 11 years, and so on. This reduction will continue until December 31, 2030, after which the deeming period will be zero.

This means that for the average sized solar system, it will be several hundred dollars cheaper if you install it before the end of the year, and the larger the system, the more money you save.

Could the government rebate be completely scrapped?

There were rumours from the Coalition’s party room that the federal government was going to adopt the recommendation by the ACCC to completely scrap the SRES (commonly referred to as the government’s solar rebate).

In recent years, the dispute over the National Energy Guarantee ultimately resulted in a change in Prime Minister, and a formal position on solar rebates was brushed to the side… for now.
But the recommendation by the ACCC to scrap the solar incentive is still the latest advice, in fact the ACCC has recently come out again to reaffirm thier position that the solar rebate should be scrapped.

Our advice remains unchanged

Our advice is simple: the sooner you install solar power, the sooner you will be generating your own electricity for a fraction of the price you would otherwise be buying it from the grid.

The price of solar power can be as low as 5-10 cents per kWh, so every day you don’t have solar is a day you are missing out on these potential savings.

With regards to the government rebate, your price is locked in when you place an order. You get the full value of the government’s incentive upfront so once you have a system installed, it no longer matters what happens to the STC price or the scheme in general. If you choose to hold off, the STC price could drop, or the government may even scrap the scheme entirely. This would be devastating to the solar industry as solar power systems would rise in price by many thousands of dollars.

So it’s the perfect storm at the moment. Solar pricing is at a record low, Sydney’s long summer days are still ahead of us. Let’s help you go solar now so you can finally do something about those rising power prices.

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