Solar installers report that Australians are flocking to sign up to have solar panels installed before the 1st of July 2011, at which point government rebates will be slashed by up to $1200.
Solar installers report that Australians are flocking to sign up to have solar panels installed before the 1st of July 2011, at which point the generous government rebates will be slashed by up to $1200.
Many installers are reporting that their schedules are now completely full for the entire period leading up to the change.”There is an across the board spike in demand,” says Daniel Edgecombe, the general manager of retail at Solar Shop Australia. “We are having to very carefully manage our work order book to ensure we know when we can no longer offer the five-times multiplier”.
Under the current system, the federal government multiplies the number of small-scale technology certificates (SSTCs) that are attached by five for the first 1.5 kilowatts of a solar setup. In July this multiplier will drop down to four, significantly reducing the rebate.
It is reported that some retailers, as a response to the possibility that they may not be able to meet the demand, are offering $200 discounts to customers if deadlines aren’t met.
According to Brenton Chivell,
 national marketing manager 
for ZEN Technologies, this might all be somewhat unnecessary though. “We predict that our pricing will not alter greatly at July 2011 due to a reduction in the cost of the goods, as forecast,” said Chivell.
The rebate multiplier, which is scheduled to drop to four in July, will continue to drop by one on July 1st each year until it’s completely phased out on July 1st, 2014. After that point, energy certificates will still be issued for solar installations, but without any multiplier effect. By that stage, the government predicts that the cost of the technology will have dropped enough to cover the difference.
