Solgen Energy

Commercial

Overview

Solgen Energy has unrivalled experience in the design and construction of commercial solar electric systems across both private and government sectors. Recent design and construction projects include:

• Cockatoo Island: 65kW design and installation project on a heritage listed building in Sydney Harbour for The Sydney Harbour Federation Trust.
• Townsville City Council: 50kW design and installation project in northern Queensland.
• Construction: Over 1.5MW of installations for construction groups including Abigroup, Hansen Yuncken, Brookfield Multiplex and Richard Crookes.
• NSW Government: Over 2MW of installations in schools.
• Design Projects: Design and consulting projects covering layouts, shade analysis, electrical schematics and financial modelling across Council Civic Centres, ASX 100  businesses and SME’s.

Solgen Energy understands the drivers behind a successful investment in solar energy and we have the credentials and proven track record in successful delivery.

We manage every aspect of your solar project:

• Site analysis and system recommendation
• System design, engineering and program management
• Construction
• Renewable Energy Certificate administration
• Rebate and Feed-in Tariff processing and grid connection
• Promotional support
• Ongoing system monitoring and support
• Ongoing system operations and maintenance

Our insightful financial modelling and integrative energy efficiency planning can allow commercial clients to meet their corporate environmental goals with a commercially sensible business-case.

How we can help your business?

Our 5 Steps Process

Step	Assess your site based on energy needs and solar production potential.
Step	Design a system to maximise your solar energy production as well as your savings.
Step	Project manage all aspects of construction, approvals, and maintenance.
Step	Manage application for relevant incentives and Feed-in Tariffs and grid connection.
Step	Monitor performance. We’ll monitor your consumption and power output performance and provide a reliable, cost effective maintenance.

Financing

The strength of the Solgen Energy group allows us to offer flexible alternatives to owning your system: from full ownership to solar power purchase agreements – or somewhere in between.

For further information please contact us.

Government Rebates and Incentives

Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme

The Government's RET scheme is designed to ensure that 20 per cent of Australia's electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020. The RET increases the previous Mandatory Renewable Energy Target by over four times, from 9,500 gigawatt-hours to 45,000 gigawatt-hours in 2020. In ten years time the amount of electricity coming from sources like solar, wind and geothermal will be about equal to all of Australia's current household electricity use.

The new RET laws include new incentives to support businesses installing small-scale solar systems. ‘Solar Credits' are now available to businesses that install eligible small generation units by providing multiple RECs for each megawatt-hour of energy produced.

Small scale renewable energy systems under the RET scheme

The RET scheme's rules allow owners of small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) systems to create at the time of installation RECs equivalent to the output of up to 15 years operation depending on the system type. This provides an upfront capital subsidy to community groups who may sell their RECs on the market. While system owners can create and trade RECs themselves, in practice owners generally transfer this right to their system provider in return for a discount on the system price or a cash payment.

Solar Credits

The expanded RET scheme includes the newly established ‘Solar Credits' mechanism to boost the support to businesses that install small-scale solar PV systems by multiplying the number of tradeable RECs able to be created for eligible installations.

Solar Credits are available for eligible systems installed on or after 9 June 2009. Solar credits apply to the first 1.5 kilowatts (kW) of capacity installed and allow for 5 times the number of eligible RECs. Generation from capacity above 1.5kW will still be eligible for the standard 1:1 rate of RECs creation. From 1 July 2011, the multiplier for eligible RECs under Solar Credits will reduce to 4 times for the first 1.5kW of installed capacity.

How much can you save?

Eligibility Criteria

The eligibility rules are prescribed in the RET scheme regulations, administered by the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator (ORER) are summarised below. Further details of the rules are available on the ORER website.

• The system must be an eligible ‘small generation unit'; being a solar PV system of up to 100 kilowatts (kW) capacity;
• The system must be installed at an eligible premises. Examples include houses, townhouses, residential apartments and shops.
• The system must be a new and complete unit.
• There is to be no ‘double-dipping' in relation to the Solar Homes and Communities Plan, the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program (RRPGP), or the National Solar Schools Program (NSSP). That is, a premises receiving a grant or rebate under any of these programs is not entitled to Solar Credits.
• No more than one system at an eligible premises (address) is entitled to Solar Credits.
• Solar Credits may only be created once for a particular installation, irrespective of whether the certificates are created for a 1-year, 5-year or 15-year deeming period.
• The system must have been installed no more than 12 months prior to the date of application for Solar Credits.

For further information on RET Scheme and Solar Credits go to: Fact Sheet or FAQs

Feed-in Tariffs

In addition to the RET scheme, State Governments across Australia are introducing feed-in tariffs which have the potential to reduce your energy costs even further. The power generated by your solar electric system is metered, any unused power is fed back to the electricity grid earning you feed-in credits, paid to you by your electricity retailer, further reducing your cost of electricity.

The table below summarises the current feed-in tariff programs implemented across Australia.

For more information on feed-in tariffs;

WA feed-in tariff 
Queensland feed-in tarif 
South Australian feed-in tariff
NSW feed-in tariff
Victoria feed-in tariff
ACT feed-in tariff

NSW Solar Bonus Scheme

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.

More information

The recent introduction of the Solar Credits Scheme now gives everyone an incentive to install solar at their business. Solgen Energy provides solar energy solutions of outstanding quality and value. We design and install the right solar solution for businesses.

To learn more about our services please complete our enquiry form or
call 1300 660 704.

For further information on the Solar Credit Scheme and how you can save go to: Fact Sheet