“Plenty” Of Victorian Solar Rebates Still Available (But Not The Right Type)

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While Victoria’s solar power rebates are done and dusted for July, the Andrews Government says there are still plenty available for rental properties, solar hot water and battery systems. It’s not much of a distraction from the crisis unfolding for the state’s residential PV sector.

Under the second phase of Victoria’s Solar Homes rebate (subsidy), support for 3,333 installations is being released each month during the 2019/20 financial year. This is available in addition to Australia’s major PV subsidy. But July’s quota was quickly filled, with all VIC rebate spots snapped up by late Wednesday last week. The next round will be available on August 1.

Apparently, around 10,000 quotes have been uploaded to Solar Victoria’s portal. This means competition will continue to be fierce to get applications submitted when August’s quota becomes available – and likely for the next few months after as more pile on.

On the weekend, SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock described the dire situation Victoria’s residential solar PV industry is facing as a result of how the program is being rolled out.

“Good businesses will go bust, families will lose homes unless drastic action is taken. Now. Right now,” says Finn, who urges readers to take actions described in his article.

PV subsidies are by far the biggest show in town in Victoria, but they aren’t the only one.

“There’s been a huge response to our Solar Homes rebate release with July’s allocation of 3,333 rooftop solar rebates fully subscribed. Plenty of rebates are still available for rental properties, solar hot water & batteries,” tweeted Minister for Solar Homes Lily D’Ambrosio last week.

While that offers zero comfort to Victorian PV installers and buyers still waiting to get a crack at the rebate for solar panels, how are the other schemes faring?

Solar For Rental Properties

A rebate of up to $2,225 is also available for rental properties in Victoria. Over the 10-year period of the Solar Homes scheme, 50,000 of these rebates will be available. This is also currently being rolled out on a monthly quota basis set at 166 rebates a month. Early this morning, there were still 150 out of the 166 allotted available for July. Learn more about solar rebates for rental properties here.

Battery Rebate

Rebates of up to $4,838 are available to support the installation of up to 10,000 battery systems in Victoria over the ten years. A thousand are available each year, but only in selected postcodes. For this financial year, 200 battery rebates are available from 1 July, 400 from November 1 and 400 from March 1, 2020. At the time of publishing, 168 out of the 200 rebates are still available for the period ending October 31. Learn more about the battery rebate here.

Solar Hot Water Support

The Victorian Government is continuing to offer a rebate of up to $1,000 on solar hot water systems. Unlike the other elements of the Solar Homes scheme, this doesn’t have a monthly quota set at this point in time. Further information can be found here.

It’s good this other support is available, but it’s not much in the overall scheme of things and “look over here” won’t address the elephant in the room now crushing Victoria’s residential solar power sector.