Community Solar
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The Victorian Government offers a number of initiatives that encourage greater uptake of solar power by communities.
- The Solar Hubs Program is a Victorian Government grant program to help deliver 9.84MW of community based solar power across Victoria by 2013. It funds five projects to a total $2.2 million. The program aims to provide communities with access to more competitively priced solar power and helps residents save money on their household bills.
- The Victorian Solar in Schools Initiative (VSiS) supports schools and community facilities to install grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems and interactive energy monitoring systems. The initiative also assists with the development of educational materials about renewable forms of energy by providing a $5000 rebate to schools and community organisations, alongside Commonwealth rebates.
- The Commonwealth Solar Cities program is working closely with successful Victorian consortia to implement their proposals and encourage sustainable energy outcomes in Victoria. Two Victorian projects were announced as successful locations under the Commonwealth's Solar Cities program:
- Central Victorian Solar Cities project ($15 million funding)
- Coburg Solar Village ($5 million funding).
- The Solar Hot Water Rebate Program provides a financial incentive to replace an existing hot water system with a solar hot water system. Rebates of up to $1500 are available in metropolitan Melbourne and up to $1600 in regional Victoria.
- In order to assist households, small businesses and community organisations, from 01 January 2012 the Victorian Government will offer a Transitional Solar Feed-in Tariff which guarantees a minimum credit of 25 cents per kilowatt hour for any excess electricity exported to the grid for solar photovoltaic systems of up to 5 kilowatts.
- Alternatively, customers can choose to sign up for a Standard Feed-in Tariff which is available for solar, wind, hydro and biomass systems greater than 5 and less than 100 kilowatts in size and provides a "one-for-one" rate for excess electricity exported to the grid.
Links:
Solar Hot Water Rebate Metropolitan Melbourne
Solar Hot Water Rebate Regional Victoria
Solar Hot Water Rebate - Regional Victoria rebate eligible solar hot water systems
