What are STC’s – Government Rebates for Solar Energy
When you install solar power, solar water heating or other renewable energy technologies, you are helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (and helping to fight the war on climate change!). In order to incentivise the adoption of renewable energy, the government introduced Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), which entitle you to receive environmental credits for every Megawatt hour (MWh) your system produces.
STCs are a commodity, and can be traded like shares. Like other commodities, the STC price is not fixed, and fluctuates with supply and demand. Rather than pay you for each certificate, the government allows you to trade them on the open market as part of the Australian government’s Renewable Energy Target. This allows companies that generate high amounts of fossil fuel to purchase these certificates in order to increase their clean energy generation. This increases the demand for certificates, and allows you to provide the supply needed after you have installed your solar system.
How are STCs created?
Universe Solar will create STCs for your installation using a portal app called Formbay. You can either keep your STCs, or assign them to us in order to reduce the retail price of your solar system. The larger your solar power system, the more power it will generate. And the more power you generate, the more STCs you are entitled to – thereby lowering the overall cost of your system!
How many STCs will I get?
So how do you know what size system you will need? There are two key variables that can help determine the optimal system size for your property.
There variables are:
- The amount of electricity consumed during daylight hours, and;
- Whether or not you wish to store solar energy with a batter for use at night.
The best place to start is by checking your most recent electricity bill and seeing how much power you use each day. The average Australian household can use up to 25kWh per day. Depending on where you are and how much daylight you receive, the general rule is that a 1kW solar power system will usually produce around 5kWh to 6kWh of energy per day.
Consequently, once you have worked out what system size you require, you can go to the Green Bank website and calculate how many STC’s you will received for such a system size in your area.
However, find out if you’re eligible to claim your STC’s first. You can do that in the link below!