Solar Credits
Solar credits are given to eligible premises -usually homes, educational institutions and not for profit organisations with a limit of one claim per home. Refer to ORER for the full definition.
They are based on the renewable energy certificate (REC) scheme but 3 times as many RECs are given for solar power than would normally be given. These extra credits only apply to the first 1.5kW of system capacity. Any system over 1.5kW gets the solar credit plus RECs on the amount of capacity over 1.5kW, see Example.
Solar credits for Western Australia on a 1.5kW system are calculated as:
| Solar Credit Calculation | Zone 3 Perth & WA |
Zone 2 Far North WA |
Zone 4 Far South WA |
| Zone rating (Western Australia) | 1.382 x | 1.536 x | 1.185 x |
| System size in kW | 1.5 x | 1.5 x | 1.5 x |
| Deeming period* | 15 x | 15 x | 15 x |
| REC entitlement (round down to nearest integer) | = 31 x | = 34 x | = 26 x |
| REC price ($/REC)** | 30 x | 30 x | 30 x |
| Solar credit multiplier (9/6/09-30/6/12)*** | 3 x | 3 x | 3 x |
| Solar credit given | = $2,790 | = $3,060 | = $2,340 |
** From 1 January 2011 the government is offering fixed priced RECs of $40 (under the Small Scale Renewable Energy Scheme). However it is taking 3 to 12 months to get paid for these RECs so it is not viable for most suppliers to offer this option. Current RECS price Air and Water offers.
The zoning is based on the level of sunshine so zone 2 gets more RECs than zone 3 which in turn gets more RECs than zone 4.
***After 30 June 2011 the multiplier will fall by one each year until 1 July 2015:
| Date of Installation | Multiplier |
| 9 June 2009 - 30 June 2011 | 5 |
| 1 July 2011 - 30 June 2012 | 3 |
| 1 July 2012 - 30 June 2013 | 2 |
| 1 July 2013 - 30 June 2014 | None |
If from the above map it is not clear which zone you fall into view ORER's list of zones by postcode .
