Solar Victoria monthly rebates gone in two hours as businesses warn of ‘absolute disaster’

Victorian solar panel installers say disaster is looming after potential customers failed to secure rebates. Now some companies claim the botched rollout means they’ll have to lay off even more staff.

Disaster looms for some solar panel businesses after the latest monthly round of rebates for households was exhausted within two hours.

Applications opened this morning for 3333 rebates offered by the state government as part of its $1.3 billion “solar homes” program, all of which were quickly snapped up.

The monthly cap on rebates was brought in by the government in June to “give consumers and industry certainty”.

But it means small businesses will now have their order books effectively frozen for the rest of August if they did not win any rebates, as customers hold off paying for new solar systems until they can receive government support.

Solar Homes Minister Lily D'Ambrosio (right) inspecting a solar panel. Picture: Glenn Ferguson

One business owner said he would now have to let his staff go after dozens of potential customers were unable to access a rebate.

“How dare you ruin our great industry and our lives,” he said.

Another installer said business had been ticking along well before the introduction of the rebate scheme, but that work had now dried up and it had become “an absolute disaster”.

Solar installers rallied at state parliament last week, claiming the botched rollout had already claimed up to 400 jobs and that hundreds more were at stake.

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien it was “extraordinary how a policy with decent intentions can — through botched implementation and design — cause such damage to a sector it is supposed to assist”.

Solar Homes Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said: “We always knew there would be huge demand for this program.”

“The monthly rebate was designed in consultation with industry to provide certainty and ensure the program is rolled out safely over the next ten years,” she said.

“This is a significant change in the way the solar industry operates and we’re working with the sector to help them adapt — but we make no apologies for making it cheaper and easier for families to install solar and take control of their energy bills.”

Clean Energy Council distributed energy director Darren Gladman praised the intention of the program but said “the way it is being rolled out is turning into a worst-case scenario for the state’s solar industry”.

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“Solar Homes has created a devastating boom-bust which is hitting many small solar businesses hard,” Mr Gladman said.

“Because the majority of Victorians are able to access the program, people are holding off installing solar altogether until they can claim the rebates. It means the state’s solar industry is being turned on and off like a tap — and for the whole of August the tap was only on for a couple of hours.”

“Government programs should not be like trying to buy concert tickets, where access depends on whether you can get through in the few hours that it is open.”

Applications for rooftop solar rebates open again on September 1.

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