NSW Solar Bonus Scheme

World Solar Production

World solar cell production reached a consolidated figure of 22,893 megawatts in 2009 exceeding newly installed nuclear power generation - Clean Energy Council

"...In short, thank you Solgen Energy for delivering an outstanding solar electricity installation and providing excellent service."

Mr David Williams, Director, Sydney Harbour Federation Trust

“Solgen Energy’s professional staff provided Redlands with honest advice and quality customer service throughout the entire process. They made it easy for us to achieve immediate benefits including reduced energy costs and the prevention of greenhouse gas emissions, and also the opportunity to educate a new generation of climate change savvy future leaders.”

David Lamb, Chief Operating Officer, Redlands, Cremorne NSW

“...completion of this 36 kilowatt PV system at our Works Depot which now gives us 48kW installed on Council sites – a great example for our community and local government around Australia.”

Mr Peter Maganov, Manager, Sustainability, Randwick City Council

Contact Us

To arrange a site inspection call 1300 660 704 or complete an enquiry form

The Solar Bonus Scheme is the NSW Government's gross feed-in tariff scheme. Through this scheme the Government has successfully reached its first milestone of 50 megawatts (MW) installed capacity. Including additional capacity installed since that milestone was reached, NSW has the largest amount of installed small scale photovoltaic (PV) systems of any jurisdiction.

Following a statutory review of the Scheme, the NSW Government announced changes to the design of the Solar Bonus Scheme. Notably for new customers joining the Scheme the tariff rate has been reduced to 20 cents from 60 cents. Customers who have connected systems by 27 October 2010 will not be affected by the tariff change.

The Scheme will also be capped at 300 megawatts (MW) of connected capacity. This change reflects the substantial fall in PV system purchase costs over the past twelve months and also takes account of the generous support provided through the Commonwealth's Renewable Energy Target scheme. Applications to connect have passed 300MW as of January 2011. We continue to monitor eligibility for the Solar Bonus Scheme, however it is unlikely to continue given that applications have exceeded capacity in January 2011. For more information see the NSW Government website.

GROSS Metering vs NET Metering

In simple terms, a GROSS metering configuration for solar power is set up in such a way that it measures all the electricity consumed in the household (i.e. imported from the electricity grid) and all the electricity generated by the solar power system and fed back in (or exported) to the electricity grid. Buy-back credits are applied to the export amounts the meter measures (i.e. everything generated by your system) and consumption (or imported) electricity is billed normally.

A NET import/export metering configuration is also often referred to as "net metering" and is setup in such a way that any electricity generated by the solar power system is always used on the premises first. Electricity generated by the solar power system is only fed back into (or exported to) the electricity grid when the amount generated is more than is being used on the premises. This type of metering configuration separately measures the amount of electricity imported from the grid and exported to the grid and it can be implemented in a number of ways.