Western Australian State Government Solar Rebates

Western Australian’s can receive financial assistance for the installation of solar PV system’s through the Federal Government rebate offering. Those living in WA can receive a reduced amount off the total price of their system through the rebate, as well as payments for any excess electricity that your solar system feeds back into the grid.

Currently Western Australia has no state-based government rebates. Information regarding the Federal Governments rebates are outlined below.

Credits for excess power: In Western Australia, you will receive a credit on your electricity bill for any unused solar power that is generated by your system and sent back to the grid. This is called a Feed-in Tariff (FiT) and is controlled by the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme (REBS), for applications received up until 7 September, 2020 and the Distributed Energy Buyback Scheme (DEBS), for applications received after 7 September, 2020.

For those under REBS, the feed-in Tariff for Western Australian residents living in the South West Interconnected System (SWIS) is 7.1 cents per kilowatt hour. For regional and remote Western Australians, their electricity provider is Horizon Power and have a feed-in tariff rate ranging from 7.1 cents to 51.0 cents per kilowatt hour, depending on location.

For those under DEBS, the feed-in Tariff for all Western Australian residents is 10c per kWh for electricity exported to the electricity network between 3pm and 9pm and 3c per kWh for electricty exported to the electricity network before 3pm. 

Until 6 November, DEBS customers will receive the current REBS rates for their exports – including any exports from batteries, giving DEBS households time to adjust to the new pricing and switch their electricity consumption to the middle of the day where they can, to make the most of their solar generation.

REBS will continue for customers who are already signed up to it, but these customers will have the option to switch to DEBS to take advantage of the higher 3-9 pm buyback rate if they wish.

Western Australian residents who installed rooftop solar panels between the 1st of July 2010 and the 30 of June 2011 receive a 40 cent feed-in tariff for 10 years and those who applied in July 2011 receive 20 cents for 10 years.

The greatest benefit that your solar system will give you however is not from your credits for excess power, but rather by offsetting your daytime electricity consumption. For every unit of electricity your solar power system produces and that you consume at the premise saves you from having to purchase that unit from your electricity retailer.

Reduction in purchase price: When you install a solar system in Western Australia, you generate Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs), which are sometimes referred to as a ‘Government Solar Rebate’. You’ll receive 1 STC for every Megawatt of energy your system is expected to produce until 2031.

For example, a 5kW system (approx 17 panels) will produce around 88MWh worth of electricity over the 11-year period until 2031, meaning you are entitled to 88 STCs.

Once your system has been installed and the STCs have been registered, they can be sold to recover a portion of the cost of purchasing your solar PV system. Given the complexity surrounding creating and selling STCs, it’s common practice to assign the right to create the STCs to your WA solar provider, in exchange for an upfront discount off the full, or ‘true’, system price. 

STCs currently trade for around $37 each, which means you’d receive around $3,250 discount off the full, or ‘true’, cost of a 5kW system.

Infinite Energy will quote a price to you that is inclusive of the STC discount. This is the final price of your system. STC’s reduce every year on the 1^st of January (and will do so until they are completely phased out), so it’s best to avoid holding off installing your system to acquire the maximum amount.