Essential Solar Knowledge For Western Australia

If you live in Western Australia, you already know that the energy market is regulated. Installing a solar and battery system could help you break free from the constraints of regulated energy and standard feed in tariffs, saving you money on your energy bills.

Daylight hours

Western Australia enjoys an average of eight to ten hours of sunlight per day, making it the perfect solar state. If on a clear day your 6.6kW system operates at maximum capacity you will generate a whopping 52.8kWh of energy! Enough power to run your home and fill a battery twice over.

Due to these conditions over 280,000 Western Australian households now have solar. A figure that is rapidly rising thanks to improved technology and accessibility. 

Source:  http://www.bom.gov.au/watl/sunshine/

Feed in Tariffs

A solar panel system not only generates power for your home but can also feed back energy into the grid, making you money!

Your feed in tariff is the rate you earn for the energy your solar system sends back to the grid. FIT’s are a government incentive for homeowners to feed energy back into the national grid. For WA the minimum feed in tariff is 7.1 c/kWh however your energy retailer can offer a higher rate than the minimum. The below feed in tariffs apply in WA.

Area	Provider	Feed in Tariff c/kWh
Perth	Synergy	7.135
South West	Synergy	7.135
Regional	Horizon	Variable depending on town see here for full list

Cost of energy

Households that do not have solar or predominately use their energy in the evening can expect to the pay the following for their energy:

Synergy Home Plan: 28.3272 c/kWh

Synergy Smart Home Plan

• Peak (Weekdays: 3pm-9pm) – 53.8714 c/kWh
• Shoulder (Weekday 7am-3pm & Weekend 7am-9pm) 28.2139 c/kWh
• Off Peak (9pm -7am) – 14.8405 c/kWh

Horizon standard rate 28.3272 c/kWh

Solar Batteries

As you can see the rate that you pay for energy is considerably higher than the rate you receive for energy fed back to the grid. Essentially you are paying 21c/kWh more for exactly the same energy, just to use it in the evening.

Solar batteries simply store the unused electricity generated from your solar panel system in the day, ready for you to use in the evening. Therefore, after the sun goes down you no longer need to pay energy providers inflated prices as you have your stored energy ready to go when you need it most.