Australia has had a renewable energy target for around 13 years. The first very limited target of 9500GWh was introduced by the Howard government in 2001. A much higher target of 41,000GWh was introduced by the Labour government in 2010. This mandatory target enables the market to put a value on Small-scale Technology Certificates, or STCs.
At present, 1kW of panels earns 17 STCs at around $31 each. This is a significant part of the overall solar price. STCs in fact make up around one third of the solar price in our bulk buy scheme. So if the Renewable Energy Target is abolished later in 2014, as now seems likely, the price of solar could rise by that percentage.
It therefore makes sense to buy now rather than wait until the RET is abolished or weakened.
