New South Wales (NSW) has a population of over 8 million, making it Australia’s most populous state with more than 5.3 million living within the Greater Sydney area.
New South Wales has 868,717 homes and businesses that have installed a solar system, and 15,545 have a solar battery too. To harness the sun’s power to heat their homes, 326,378 have installed a solar water heater or air source heat pump.
New South Wales has also installed 173 wind turbines, which is by far the highest amount out of any state. (source – Clean Energy Regulator).
The Australian PV Institute estimates the percentage of dwellings with a PV system to be 29.5%. Therefore there is plenty of scope for lots more renewable energy systems to be installed.
NSW is leading the way with the development of large-scale renewable energy projects, 16 major wind farms (total capacity 1800 MW), 24 major large-scale solar farms (total capacity 1900 MW), with another 200 projects planned. (source – NSW Government – Climate and Energy Action)
The number of solar systems installed grows each day, as more households realise the benefits that such a system has on their power bills and the environment. Don’t let renewable energy savings pass you by any longer, take action today to see what benefits a renewable energy system could have on your bills and the positive impact on the environment.
New South Wales Electricity Grid
New South Wales is part of the National Electricity Market (NEM) and they have Transgrid which is the high voltage transmission network service provider. Transgrid is owned via the NSW Electricity Networks consortium.
You sign up with a choice of retailers, either on a standard or market retail contract. To find an energy plan that meets your needs, Energy Made Easy is a great site by the Australian Government and can be accessed here.
Please ensure you shop around to get the best deal, and make sure you consider the Feed-in Tariff (FITS) when looking at your energy provider, when you choose a renewable energy system for your needs, you want to get paid for the excess power your system produces.
Rebates and Incentives
Government Incentive – Small-scale Technology Certificates (STC)
When you install a renewable energy solution, you are entitled to claim Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) against the cost of the system. An STC is equal to 1 megawatt-hour of renewable electricity, either generated or displaced by eligible small-scale renewable energy systems such as solar PV, wind, hydro, solar water heaters and air source heat pumps.
The STCs are part of the Australian government’s Renewable Energy Target. STCs fluctuate a little in the marketplace and are generally always claimed on the customer’s behalf by the retailer installing your system.
You can claim them yourself via the REC Registry, however, it is much easier to allow your trusted and endorsed installer to claim them on your behalf. At the time of writing this, STCs are trading at $40 each, however, they have been as low as $16 per STC.
To see an up-to-date price please click here. At $40 per STC, this means for a 5kw inverter with 6.6kw of panels one can expect a reduction of $ 3,000.
The Clean Energy Regulator provides a free STC Calculator for you to establish how many STCs your renewable energy solution will generate. If you would like to see what your STC rebate would be with a ‘live’ price right now!
Greenbank Environmental can provide this here.
Feed-in tariffs (FITS)
Within NT you will be eligible for a payment for any electricity you export back to the grid that you do not consume. This is known as a Feed-in Tariff.
This includes all energy you export back to the grid, be it from solar panels, wind turbines, batteries or electric vehicles. See the table below for the FITs available within NSW.
Electric Vehicles (EVs)
The NSW Government is currently offering $3,000 rebates for the first 25,000 eligible EVs sold with a dutiable value of less than $68,750. They have also abolished the stamp duty, which could save eligible EV purchasers up to $5,540.
Further information on the rebates available can be found here.
| Retailer | Min Solar FIT | Max Solar FIT | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| GloBird Energy | 1.0 c | 17.0 c | First 8kWh per day, then 3.0c |
| Powershop | 0.0 c | 13.0 c | System size 10kW max |
| Red Energy | 6.0 c | 12.0 c | Capped at first 5kWh per day |
| OVO Energy | 0.0 c | 12.0 c | |
| Simply Energy | 8.0 c | 12.0 c | |
| Origin Energy | 2.0 c | 12.0 c | Only if buy solar through Origin |
| AGL | 5.0 c | 12.0 c | System size 10kW max |
| ActewAGL | 8.0 c | 12.0 c | |
| Energy Locals | 11.0 c | 11.0 c | |
| EnergyAustralia | 7.6 c | 10.0 c | System size 10kW max |
| Sumo | 5.5 c | 8.0 c | |
| Momentum Energy | 0.0 c | 7.0 c | |
| Alinta Energy | 6.7 c | 6.7 c | Inverter size 5kW max |
| Dodo | 6.2 c | 6.2 c | |
| Radian Energy | 6.0 c | 6.0 c | |
| 1st Energy | 6.0 c | 6.0 c | |
| Tango Energy | 5.5 c | 5.5 c | Must install through Tango and capped at 3.5kWh per day |
| CovaU | 5.5 c | 5.5 c | |
| Diamond Energy | 0.0 c | 5.2 c | |
| Nectr | 0.0 c | 4.4 c | |
| Kogan Energy | 0.0 c | 4.4 c | |
| Amber Electric | 0.0 c | 0.0 c | |
| ReAmped Energy | 0.0 c | 0.0 c |