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Solar Buyer’s Guide 1300 539 765

Contents

12 Questions you should ask the company quoting for your business ...................................................................................... 2

5 Tricks of unscrupulous companies you should be wary of ...................................................................................................... 3

Easy calculations to tell you the size of the system you really need ......................................................................................... 4

Step 1: Determine your average monthly electrical consumption ..................................................................................................................................................... 4

Step 2: Determine the average sunshine hours your house gets in a day....................................................................................................................................... 5

Step 3: Calculate ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Savings ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Things That Will Affect Your Maximum Power Output ............................................................................................................... 7

Location and orientation of the panels ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Weather conditions .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 7

Shading from trees or other buildings........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Dust or dirt build-up on the panels ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Government subsidies available today ....................................................................................................................................... 8

Renewable Energy Certificates ................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 8

Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 8

Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Solar Credits ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Feed-in Tariffs ................................................................................................................................................................................ 10

Consumer protection and guarantees offered by installation companies and component manufacturers ............................ 11

Why choose Key Solar? ............................................................................................................................................................... 12

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12 Questions you should ask the company quoting for your business

Deciding to switch to solar may require some thinking, and so is choosing a solar PV retailer. To help you with this difficult task, below are

some questions from the Clean Energy Council’s website which you can ask your prospective retailer to decide if they are the right

company for the job1.

Is the designer / installer accredited with the Clean Energy Council?

Will the company quoting on the system also be doing the installation?

Do the modules you use meet the Australian Standards?

Do the inverters you use meet the Australian Standards?

What kinds of warranties come with the products?

Will you be readily available to troubleshoot and fix problems?

Do you organize all the necessary metering changes and what are the associated costs?

What workmanship and performance guarantees do you offer?

Does the designer / installer organize the paperwork for your local electricity supplier to move you to a premium feed in tariff??

Does the designer / installer handle all the REC paperwork for you?

Does the quote include or exclude money received from RECs?

How long will it take from deposit to installation?

Once these questions are answered, you’ll have a full view of the accountabilities, qualifications, and limitations of the company

quoting your business and thus, it’ll be easy enough to decide if they can provide you the service you expect.

To be eligible for government rebates, both the designer and installer of your solar PV system must be accredited by the Clean Energy Council. The Clean Energy Council's accreditation scheme ensures that accredited designers and installers of solar PV power systems have undergone the necessary professional training, adhere to Australian Standards and follow industry best practice.

1 http://www.solaraccreditation.com.au/consumers/purchasing-your-solar-pv-system/finding-a-solar-retailer.html

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5 Tricks of unscrupulous companies you should be wary of

In every industry, there will always be those who take advantage of their customers; that’s why it is important to always be cautious and

stay informed so as to not get deceived and end up wasting time and resources. Below is a list from the Clean Energy Council’s website of

common tricks done by corrupt companies you should watch out when choosing your solar retailer1.

Aggressive sales tactics

One size fits all system designs

Over-exaggerated claims of pay back periods and system performance

Large inverters with small systems. Your ability to upgrade your system in the future may depend on receiving permission from

your distributor, and on suitable arrays still being available. Upgrading your system may also result in losing your feed-in tariff.

Pressure to sign on the spot. Remember, for unsolicited sales, you are entitled to a cooling-off period of 10 business days during

which you may cancel the contract without penalty.

What’s important is to not get swayed by the sweet words of your PV retailer.

Always remember that sales people are trained to make you only see the good aspects of things and to let out their down side. Take your

time in analyzing the ups and downs of the system the retailer is proposing and the maintenance and other benefits you’ll get once it is

installed.

Also, bear in mind that inverter size is not directly proportional to system size. Make sure that the company has documents to back up all

their claims and that their accountabilities is clear to both parties before signing anything.

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Easy calculations to tell you the size of the system you really need

The size of the solar PV system you should install will depend on 3 three key aspects2:

the physical unshaded area available for the installation of your panels

how much you are prepared to spend

what portion of your electrical consumption you wish to generate

The ideal scenario would be to generate your entire electrical consumption using your solar PV system. To determine the size of the

system you would need, follow these 3 easy steps:

Step 1: Determine your average monthly electrical consumption

To do this, find a few of your most recent electricity bills and look for the section that says 'kWh'. Add up those values and divide the sum

by the number of bills you found to get the average. For instance, if you found four of your electricity bills and your electricity usage in

each are as follows: 1,100 kWh, 1,200 kWh, 900 kWh, and 1,000 kWh. Then, your average monthly consumption is 1,700 kWh.

(1100 kWh + 1200 kWh + 900 kWh + 1000 kWh) / 4 = 1,050kWh

2 http://www.solaraccreditation.com.au/dam/cec-solar-accreditation-shared/guides/Consumer-Guide-to-Buying-Household-Solar-Panels-December-2012.pdf

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Step 2: Determine the average sunshine hours your house gets in a day.

To give you an idea how many solar hours your house gets in a day, below is a table of the average daily sunshine hours in Australian cities3:

Month

Brisbane,

Queensland

Sydney,

New South

Wales

Canberra,

ACT

Melbourne,

Victoria

Adelaide,

South Australia

Perth,

Western Australia

Jan. 8 8 9 8 10 11

Feb. 7 7 8 8 9 10

Mar. 7 7 8 6 8 9

Apr. 7 7 7 5 6 7

May. 7 6 6 4 5 6

Jun. 7 6 5 3 4 5

Jul. 7 7 5 4 4 5

Aug. 8 8 6 4 5 5

Sep. 8 8 8 5 6 7

Oct. 8 8 8 6 7 9

Nov. 8 8 9 7 8 10

Dec. 8 8 9 7 9 11

3 http://www.livingin-australia.com/sunshine-hours-australia/

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Step 3: Calculate

Using the values you got from the first two steps, calculate the size of the solar PV system you need using the following formula:

SYSTEM SIZE =

(ANNUAL ELECTRICAL CONSUMPTION) / (NUMBER OF DAYS IN A YEAR) / (SOLAR HOURS PER DAY) / (EFFICIENCY

CONSTANT)

In the example in Step 1, we got the monthly average of 1,700 kWh. So to get the annual electrical consumption, we must multiply this

value to 12.

Annual electrical consumption = 1,050 kWh x 12 = 12,600 kWh

Assuming that your house gets an average of 7 hours of daily sunlight, then using an efficiency constant of 0.75, the size of your solar PV

should be:

System Size = (12,600 kWh) / (365 days/year) / (7 hours/day) / 0.75 = 6.57 kW

The current price ranges for systems of different sizes

The price of solar PV systems varies tremendously so it is vital that you are thoroughly informed on the different technologies, installers,

and warranties available in the market. The price can be affected by a number of factors such as4:

government rebates and support schemes after sales service agreements

location monitoring equipment and agreements

number of panels costs of the grid-connection process and orientation of panels and whether tilt frames are required equipment needed to connect type, quality and efficiency of panels removal of trees or other shading system design and configuration type of roofing (for example, tiled or tin or concrete)

shipping costs for equipment and parts height and accessibility of roof

contractor installation costs site preparation needs (for example, condition of roof or ground)

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The table below shows the current price ranges in the market for systems from 3kW to 5kW systems. The prices indicated include GST and

rebate from renewable energy certificates.

Estimated System Size

Savings

It is important to consider whether solar is a worthwhile investment for you. As the cost of solar has fallen, so have government incentives. Be aware that different factors affect payback periods and your suitability to solar.

Most benefit is gained by 'self-consumption' – that is, offsetting the higher retail tariff that you would pay by using power generated by your system instead of drawing power from the grid. Accordingly, you should match your system size to household/business consumption.

Things That Will Affect Your Maximum Power Output

Location and orientation of the panels Panels should ideally be installed on a north facing roof to help achieve the maximum output. Panels can still be installed facing ENE, NE, N, NW, WNW and be angled to gain maximum benefit

Weather conditions

Your theoretical maximum power output is calculated on the sunniest of days. Different locations will have different power outputs. For example, Brisbane is based upon an average daily value of 5.6 hours. Long period of cloud cover also reduce output.

Shading from trees or other buildings

This should be determined by an on-site inspection by a designer before work is commenced.

Dust or dirt build-up on the panels This will affect output so regular maintenance is required by a qualified tradesperson - See more at: http://www.solaraccreditation.com.au/consumers/purchasing-your-solar-pv-system/solar-pv-costs-and-savings.html#sthash.TjCBQiBr.dpuf

System Size Estimated price range

3kW $3,800 - $ 6,000

4kW $4,800 - $ 8,000

5kW $5,800 - $10,000

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Government subsidies available today

There several types of government subsidies offered to Australian consumers of solar PV systems depending on its size. As of September

2013, the following are the types of financial assistance you can avail4:

Renewable Energy Certificates:

- Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs)

- Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs)

Feed-in-Tariffs (FiTs)

Solar Credits

Clean Technology Investment Program (CTIP)

Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program (CTFFIP)

Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC)

Other

Renewable Energy Certificates

A Renewable Energy Certificate is a measurement of renewable energy that can be traded or sold for a monetary value4. For systems

under 100 kW, you will be eligible to create certificates under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES). As for systems above

100 kW, you will be certified to generate certificates under the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET).

Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs)

A certificate created under the SRES is called a Small-scale Technology Certificate (STC). Each STC is equivalent to a megawatt hour of

electricity generated by a solar PV system. STC prices vary depending on current market conditions.

Solar PV system owners can get a financial benefit from STCs in two ways. You can either assign your STCs upon purchasing your system

to a registered agent in exchange of a financial benefit which can be in either of the following forms: a delayed cash payment or an

upfront discount on your solar PV system. Another option is to create the STCs yourself and then sell and transfer them in the Renewable

Energy Certificate (REC) registry.

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Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs)

A certificate created under the LRET is called a Large-scale Generation Certificate (LGC). To create LGCs, you must first register as a power

station with the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) to get a REC registry account. Each LGC is equivalent to one megawatt hour of electricity

generated above a specified baseline for the solar PV system.

One key difference between the creation of LGCs and STCs is that an LGC can only be created once the generation has been proven and

validated by the CER. You may sell your LGCs to your PV retailer or other energy retailers who have liabilities under the Renewable Energy

Target (RET).

Solar Credits

Owners of solar PV systems installed before 1 January 2013, are eligible to avail the solar credit multiplier. The Government sets the level

of the multiplier depending on the cost of rooftop solar panels during the period of installation as reflected on the following table2.

Installation period Number of multipliers

9 June 2009 to 30 June 2010 5 x

1 July 2010 to 30 June 2011 5 x

1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012 3 x

1 July 2012 to 31 December 2012 2 x

1 January 2013 onwards 1 (i.e. no multiplier)

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Feed-in Tariffs

Feed-in tariffs (FiTs) pay you for the electricity generated by your solar PV system on either a net or

gross basis4. Net feed-in tariffs is the more common arrangement between the two. Under a net feed-

in tariff, you will get paid based on the excess electricity produced by your solar system. Conversely,

under a gross feed-in tariff, you will be paid for every unit of electricity generated by your solar panels.

Tariffs vary between different locations and are typically available only for residential systems.

To receive a feed-in tariff, you first need to apply for it to your electricity retailer. Before signing an

agreement, it is important to be knowledgeable of the terms and conditions involved. Below are the

important questions you should ask before deciding to avail a feed-in tariff4:

What price will your retailer pay you for electricity exported (in cents per kWh)?

What is the cost of the electricity you purchase from your retailer (in cents per kWh)?

Will you lose your off-peak rates by moving onto a higher ‘time of use’ tariff?

What will be the form of payment for electricity you produce? (It is likely you will receive the feed-in tariffs you earn by default as

a credit on your electricity bill rather than cash.)

What is the upper threshold on system size to be eligible for feed-in tariffs?

Is there a threshold on the volume of electricity you can sell?

Will your metering need to be upgraded so you can receive the feed-in tariff, and are there any costs involved?

How will excess energy be calculated and summed? (e.g. instantaneously, daily or quarterly)

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Consumer protection and guarantees offered by installation companies and component manufacturers

In general, solar PV panels has a performance warranty of up to 25 years and a guarantee of 5-10 years. Individual material warranties

and workmanship guarantees, on the other hand, lasts for 5-10 years.

When having a solar PV system installed, it is important to confirm first who will be providing warranty for your system. Either the

manufacturer or the importer should be accountable to any defects so be sure you ask your installer beforehand which party will be

providing the warranty. In addition, you must also be certain to acquire the necessary documents from your installer regarding

performance claims, warranties, and guarantees, so that you'll have proof in case you need to make insurance or warranty claims in the

future.

A system manual that provides operation, maintenance and safety information should be provided by your installer. This must also include

a system energy output (kWh) estimate.

The most important thing to look for when assessing the warranty characteristics of a system is to find out who holds the warranty.

Reading the fine print to understand what your obligations and costs are – and who you should deal with – is critical should you ever need

to exercise your warranty rights in the future.

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Why choose Key Solar?

We’re local. We aren’t a large, impersonal, discount chain operation and being local means being available to take care of you one-on-one. When you call us, you won’t be talking to an overseas operator or call centre. Also, once you purchase your system, you won’t be serviced by a local subcontractor who was hired by someone from an out of state company (this isn’t uncommon). Key Solar is committed to making sure the customers get the most from their solar system.

We install only the highest quality solar panels. Key Solar does not install inferior solar panels from cut rate manufacturers. Our company only uses the best industry-leading solar technologies to ensure our customers receive the highest energy production with minimal maintenance. Maximum energy production ensures faster return on your investment.

Know who you’re dealing with. Some companies hire subcontractors which can make it difficult to track accountability, should an issue arise. Every solar system installed by Key Solar will be designed and installed by a licensed Electrician with CEC accreditation and this assurance is your peace of mind.

We do all the paperwork. We handle all the paperwork to ensure that your solar system installation goes smoothly and the end result exceeds your expectations. Many of our solar customers have found our staff pleasant, knowledgeable and extremely responsive. Additionally we pride ourselves on our honesty and integrity – something that sets us apart from other companies.

We’re in it for the long haul. The Solar industry has been plagued by ‘fly-by-nighters’ and contractors into make a quick buck. With over 3,000 installations and counting, we’re here to stay; and stand behind the work we undertake. As a result of our customer focused approach, we create long term relationships with customers who recommend our work to their family and friends.

Your satisfaction is absolutely guaranteed and backed by product and workmanship warranty. Manufacturers offer substantial warranties ranging from 10 to 25 years depending on the product. In addition, Key Solar offers a 5 year workmanship warranty on all of our solar system installations.

We don’t do hard-sell. High pressure sales tactics are unfortunately common in the solar industry and often the sales person hasn’t the technical experience or knowledge and problems can arise. Key Solar will conduct a free site evaluation and assessment by a qualified CEC Designer and Installer and guide you towards the right system for your needs.

It doesn’t end after installation. We will provide you ongoing support and maintenance services for the lifetime of the system. You’ll never be left out in the cold with questions unanswered or issues unattended.

1300 539 765 info@keysolar.com.au

www.keysolar.com.au