Small and medium-sized enterprises, in short SMEs, have a lot to gain from solar being installed. If you are a small business and looking for ways to minimize expenses rather than looking at short-term changes, make smart investments that will benefit you in the long term. Solar for small businesses is now even easier and more feasible, with multiple government-initiated projects that provide with financial incentives and interest-free loans.
Why Go Solar?
It’s no news that there is an ongoing crisis of fuel and political unrest continuing worldwide. The matters don’t seem to subdue but irrupt at a bigger phenomenon as time passes. Which already resulted in energy prices to skyrocket, and to make matters worse, the increasing inflation rate is another problem added to the plate. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 1.8% during this quarter, and overall from the beginning of the year to the third quarter of September 2022, the CPI increased by 7.3%.
This affects the purchasing power of you and I, and as a business forecasting the upcoming changes and taking appropriate measures beforehand is what a smart business person would do. In that sense, with increasing power prices and to reduce dependability on the utility grid, going solar is the smartest choice to make in today’s date.
With a high-quality solar system, it will not only pay back for itself but also will save you thousands in the electric bill. Eventually, if you deice to add solar batteries to the system, you can forget about paying anything to the energy retailers in the form of the electric bill altogether for at least 15 years to come.
Return on Investment- Cost and Paybacks
Depending on what kW range of system you install for your business, the cost will vary. Also, your area of installation plays a huge role in this. The average return on investment for a regular solar system that consists of monocrystalline solar panels and a hybrid inverter can take about 5 to 7 years to pay the entire amount you spent for it back.
However, keep in mind there are a lot of small details to take into consideration in this case. If your business is a heavy power user, then your payback period can be even smaller. But it doesn’t usually exceed the timeline given above. Circumstances may vary the results.
If you go through the entire process by the book and appoint a CEC-approved installer, who is actually qualified to do their job and install CEC-approved components, you will see results in your next bill copy. Typically, a 15 KW system can replace an average of 33% of the electricity used by a small business that uses 50,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually. Mind that for a business, a 15kW system is not that huge, but you still get a massive improvement.
Government Rebates – STC and State Government Plans
Several rebates are being offered to small businesses by both the federal and state government. Solar systems which are smaller than 100kW are eligible to claim the federal rebate that comes in the form of small-scale technology certificates. Each certificate denotes 1 tonne of GHG gasses being removed from the atmosphere.
These certificates are generated by CEC-accredited ACPs, who you have to appoint to enjoy the incentives. This ensures the proper activation of the rebate and regulation of the scheme with the help of industry experts. These certificates can be exchanged for financial incentives by the ACPs. The large energy retailers who emit the most carbon-di-oxide buy these certificates, which later benefit you as the installers adjust that amount from your installation bill.
Also, the Victorian government is actively participating in making life easier for small businesses by offering a state rebate which can be claimed in addition to the federal one (STC). A maximum of $3500 in rebates, or 50% of the net cost of a rooftop solar system, are available. In addition to the rebate, interest-free loans between $1,000 and $5,000 are also offered.
In this release, there are about 1,197 rebates remaining for you to grab NOW! Follow this link to stay up to date with the release.
