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Do you have, or know anyone who has a small business that is not yet connected to renewable energy?

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Many small businesses operate mainly in daylight hours and have considerable roof space. This situation is conducive to substantial reductions in power bills and a short payback period for solar panel purchase. Other renewable options such as Community Investment and Retail Power Purchases will be explored as well.

We have designed the timing and format of the webinar to make it available to Small Business Owners during working hours on their workplace computer.

A recording will also be available to those who register but are unavailable at the time.

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Please invite any small business owners who may benefit to register.

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Tuesday 11th May 2021, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm AEST

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Which system is best for your business?
Below are some different ways of connecting to renewable energy. Review the outlay and typical payback periods for each:
  • Purchase Panels
  • Take Loan, Purchase Panels
  • Investors Finance Panels with Power Purchase Agreement
  • Enter into Power Purchase Agreement with Renewable Energy Retailer
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The red bar on the charts below represent the expected notional range of investment and return with repect to time
Image: SIx.Maps
Purchase Panels.
This may be a good year (up to June 30 2021) to purchase panels. Depending on your circumstances you may be able to write off 100% of the purchase. LINK
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Generally, your installer will offer you a discount on your system in exchange for Government STCs.  GovernmentInfo Explanation
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Investigate if your state government has any assistance available.
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Take Loan, Purchase Panels.
  • This may be a good year (up to June 30 2021) to purchase panels. Depending on your circumstances you may be able to write off 100% of the purchase.*    LINK
  • It also may be a good time to take advantage of low interest rates.*
*Check with your accountant
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Investors Finance, Enter into a Power Purchase Agreement.
  • If you are a larger power consumer and plan to be in business for the long term. You could get your system financed by investors and enter into a Power Purchase Agreement with them. You will have 2 power bills, but the Renewable Energy will be cheaper*. At the end of the term, ownership of the panels reverts back to you.
  • If you lease out the building, this could be a good way to improve the long term value of the asset.
*Check with your accountant
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PPA or Account with Retailer
  • Connecting to cheaper Renewable energy could be as easy as a phone call away.
  • Retailers are connected to the wholesale market and some of them are willing and prepared to manage the energy purchase from the wholesale market and translate that into a reliable, cheaper, renewable supply of electricity.
  • Some retailers also have the capability to tailor your account for you and establish the cheapest arrangement.
  • This option is available for larger users typically for 100kW+* account. 
*different for each state.
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Time Shifting Power
  • Installing Panels provides cheaper power when the sun is shining.
  • Connecting to a Battery will allow you to store your excess energy you have not used
  • It also allows you to time-shift your power usage.
  • For more information on Community Batteries, check the other pages on this website LINK
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Why are Community Batteries Important?

Australia has the world’s highest per-capita residential solar and this continues to grow rapidly along with utility-scale renewables.  Solar panels pay for themselves very quickly, with returns on investment markedly higher than current low interest rates. In this context of more solar panels, the limitations of the grid, of established electricity market processes, plus regulatory barriers and proposed solar taxes become even more constraining. 

 

This makes community batteries especially attractive and viable.  They will be a key to higher solar uptake without export limits, taxes or other curtailment. They have the further major benefit of being able to export excess solar when time-variable feed-in tariffs are highest. We, therefore, stress that proposals to expand solar panels across the residential, commercial, industrial, and council sectors within any and all LGAs should consider the synergies with community batteries.

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Considering Wollongong City Council's LGA as one example, there is  ~13% residential solar (below average) with a median size of 3kW.  The Climate Change Mitigation Plan includes the objective of encouraging residents to install solar panels through an education program and incentives. Council itself has ~360kW of panels installed with plans for more.

 

Across industrial suburbs like Unanderra the solar uptake is very low, so encouraging solar power is an alternative to the PPA option (Section 4) for such SMEs. In each situation, localised mid-size batteries strengthen the business case and ROI for solar panels alone.

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AusGrid has an explanation of Community Batteries  LINK

Further Research
The following links are not recommendations but can be the basis for further research.*
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  • Purchase Panels
  • Take Loan, Purchase Panels
  • Investors Finance Panels with Power Purchase Agreement
  • Enter into Power Purchase Agreement with Energy Retailer
  • NSW Government has some incentives. LINK
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*There is no connection or benefit derived from the abovementioned companies. In researching this topic, these people seemed to be good to deal with.