We are not financial advisors so we cannot answer this for you. From our personal experiences, however, we believe installing solar is a really solid investment. Many people report saving around $400 per year per kW of solar (ie around $2800 for a 7kW system), and average systems take around 3-5 years to pay back.

The up-front installation cost can be a lot for some people but the costs of staying reliant on the grid are really unaffordable for some.

The most popular approaches for getting solar into properties today are:

1. Pay upfront

2. Talk to your existing lender to add it to your mortgage

3. Talk to your existing lender to see what green finance products they offer. These often have great rates for customers (eg. CommBank’s Green Loan or CommBank’s partnership with UPower giving customers 0% interest loan so you start saving from day 1!).

4. Explore specialist solar lenders such as:

Brighte's green loan

Parker Lane's green loan

5. Low Income Household / Land & Housing Corp(LAHC) property? Swap annual rebate for 3KW system from NSW Government rebate for 3KW system from NSW Government.

Everyone’s situation is different and we are not financial advisers or providers. Check with your Accountant or Financial Adviser as to what is best for you.

What we do know is that once you’ve paid back the installation cost (usually by year 3) then you have energy bills that are extremely small from then on because you’re getting free power from the sun. The sun’s energy will last 4 billion years longer than our supply of expensive coal.

The faster you get solar, the sooner you will be getting free energy from the sun.

A solar installer will assess your home's suitability for solar panels by evaluating the amount of sunlight your roof receives, the angle of your roof, and any obstructions that may cast shadows on your panels.

The current subsidy for a PV & Battery system is about $2,800 (it is being reduced over time). The subsidy is provided as a rebate mechanism called Small Scale Technology Certificates (STCs).

Your solar provider will generally handle the STCs for you and quote you a price which already takes the government rebate into account.

See STC rebate explainer

You can get any size you want (you’re not limited to 6, 8 or 10kw). If you can, we encourage you to get the biggest system you can afford (and fit). This is because…

You might get additional electric appliances, and especially an EV and a battery in the future

It costs less to install all at once - each site visit from tradespeople requires roof access, and expanding systems is not always straightforward

Subsidies for solar are getting gradually smaller each year

At the moment you can only sell up to 5kw of your excess energy back into the grid, and this has been one of the main reasons that 6.6kw systems have been so popular. However this limit will increase in the near future to 10kw after the success of ‘flexible export limit’ trials The lowest cost energy future is maximising rooftop solar and offering that to nearby EV charging and other demands in our local areas - the bigger your system, the more you’ll be contributing to a greener and cheaper grid.

The main difference between the ‘Premium’ and ‘Standard’ options - apart from cost - is that the ‘Premium’ manufacturers have a longer, better recognised history of quality and customer satisfaction. There are also small differences in the panel efficiency - the amount generated by the same size panel - so a ‘Premium’ panel with higher efficiency may be a better choice on a roof with a very limited space for more total capacity.

Every home is different and some variations may be due to unknown circumstances. Typical factors that might lead to a higher quoted price could include:

• Difficult roof access

• Long or inaccessible electrical cabling runs

• Racking and mounting needs

• Base electrical system upgrades needed (eg new switchboard)

• Number of storeys

On average, it takes between 1-3 days to install an average residential solar panel system, but you should talk to your solar provider.

A solar system requires a smart meter on your main connection, and if your switchboard is old it could also require replacement but not necessarily. Your installer will tell you if you need upgrades as part of your quote.

Once you have confirmed installation with a solar provider, they will be your key contact point and the primary contact to resolve any issues or problems including quoting, installing and performance.

Yes - because the sun spends most of its day in the northern sky in Australia, the ideal roof for solar panels faces north. Panels on the east will generate more energy in the morning, and panels on the west will generate in the afternoon, while only very flat roofs should be considered for panels on the south.

The slope also affects production and the ideal angle varies during the year. Usually it is most economical to use the slope you have rather than spend money on installing tilt racking. But if you do use tilt racking, it’s worth noting that:

About 22 degrees will maximise your total annual production - this angle gets lots of energy on long summer days from the sun high up overhead. But these summer days are when energy is generally cheapest anyway.

Over 30 degrees will better generate energy in winter, when the sun is lower in the sky for less hours - so you will generate less overall for the year, but have slightly more energy to use in the scarce months.

Solar monitoring is an additional installed technology connected to software which allows you to monitor in realtime, such as:

- how much energy is being produced by solar,

- how much you’re consuming and

- how much you’re sending back to the grid.

It is really useful in see when you’re consuming the big chunks of energy and makes you think about how you can shift more of your consumption into the daytime solar hours when you’re getting it free from the sun via your solar panels.

Your behaviour is an important part of maximising your solar generation. Try switch to the middle of the day (10am to 2pm) the use of appliances wherever possible.

Eg. get a switch installed on your hot water system to heat your water during the daytime, run dishwashers, tumble dryers, pool pumps, oven and washing machines during the day. Some appliances have auto-timers which allow you to schedule them to start at a specific time if you’re out.

Any excess solar you’re not using is automatically fed back to the grid (unless you have a battery). The Feed in Tariff is what your energy retailer is prepared to pay you for the energy fed back. Currently the Feed in Tariff is between 4-10 c/kWh). In general, we recommend you don’t focus so much on feed in tariffs, but more on how to consumer as much of your solar when producing as possible as this is more economic in general.

The biggest savings are from having rooftop solar (payback generally 3-5 years).

There are many reasons to use a battery (environmentally, be more self sufficient, protection against grid blackouts etc). The general consensus is if your primary motivation is to save on energy bills then battery systems may not meet the return on investment under warranty currently. However the cost of batteries is declining and these economics are expected to change and batteries will become a big part of our energy system.

Furthermore soon we also expect most new EVs to have Vehicle to Home (V2H) and Vehicle to Grid (V2G) capability ie. you can use the battery in your car to feed energy back to your house or grid). So if you can charge your car for free/cheaply during the day from excess solar energy, you can use the car as your house battery overnight (assuming you don't need the full EV range the next day). It’s an exciting future ahead!

We are concerned about the environmental impact of replacing old solar panels, and there are a range of recycling practices happening at the moment.

We support businesses such as PV industries who provide genuine end-of-life recycling to prevent disused solar panels ending up in landfill. They strip down individual panels and recover the majority of components and recover as much material as possible!

There are also solar providers who look for opportunities for panels to be re-used locally, resulting in people who can’t afford new solar getting the panels that others grow out of. Countries like Fiji are actively asking for 2nd hand solar panels so they can harness the power of the sun without generating waste and suffering through high energy bills.