MORE than 30,000 Victorian households have embraced the Andrews Labor Government’s landmark Solar Homes program, reducing their power bills and helping supply more energy to our electricity grid.
Recently the 10,000th rebate was paid, taking savings for Victorian households to more than $21M since the program opened last August.
Due to the immense success of the program, and with rebates now almost fully subscribed, Solar Victoria will accept a final 2,000 applications for solar panel rebates this financial year.
The second phase of the $1.3B Solar Homes program will begin on July 1 this year, offering Victorians even more rebates for solar panels or solar hot water.
This will also mark the start of the government’s no-interest loans offer, which will allow households to install solar with no upfront costs, as well as solar panels for 50,000 rental properties and 10,000 solar batteries.
To boost safety and ensure an orderly rollout of the program, caps on the number of solar PV, hot water and battery rebates provided under the program will be set each year.
This builds on previous announcements about safety standards in the Solar Homes program, including the new requirement that participating solar retailers sign up to the Clean Energy Council’s Solar Retailer Code of Conduct.
The Labor Government’s Solar Homes package is helping Victorians take control of their energy bills by rolling out solar panels, solar hot water or solar batteries to 770,000 homes over the next 10 years.
The Solar Homes program will cut Victoria’s carbon emissions by almost four million tonnes, the equivalent of taking one million of Victoria’s 4.6 million cars off the road. Household solar is expected to generate 12.5 percent of Victoria’s 40 percent target for renewable energy by 2025.
Full details of the Solar Homes program can be found at solar.vic.gov.au
