What Government rebates are available and how do they work?
When you put a solar energy system on your roof, you generate what are called Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). One REC is equal to 1mW of energy produced by your system over a 15 year period. A 1.5 kW system will produce around 31mW worth of electricity so you are entitled to 31 RECS which sell for $40. This means you receive $1,200 in government incentives for a 1.5kW system. However, the Federal Government has introduced the RECs multiplier which entitles you to 5 times this amount of RECs for your first 1.5kW worth of system until July1 2011. This means you receive $6,200 worth of rebate. After this time the multiplier will reduce by 1 multiple to 4 and the rebate will be worth $5,000. The multiplier will reduce by a multiple of 1 until 2014 when you will receive no multiplier.
