All ambitious governments all over the world have renewable energy target. They create such target to monitor and oversee the energy market in regard to how much CO2 emission saving achieved from installing solar power systems or any other renewable energy source, and to reduce the dependability on fossil fuels energy sources which are on its way to gone.
What is the STCs certificate?
It's a tradeable certificate represents CO2 emission saving resulting from installing a small scale solar system, its issued and awarded from a government body, called clean energy regulator. In other word, it's a measure of how much CO2 emission your solar system installation will save, it is also affirmation that this solar product can be used safely.
When your small scale solar system installed, calculations will be done by clean energy regulator to indicate how many STCs can be created over the whole life time of your solar system, and of course this is also a measure of how much renewable energy your solar system will generate.
How can you get paid for STC certificates?
After getting your STCs certificates, you have to provide them to your solar system installation company, then they can trade these certificates and gets cash in return.
The solar system company offers you upfront discount on your solar system price equal to the price they will get when sell these certificates. So, now you paid in a form of a rebate applied on your solar system price.
Understanding some important aspects of STC certificates:
Here are 5 important keys about such certificate:
1. You will not get paid via the government, but through your solar system installation company.
2. It’s a tradable certificate, so it varies from time to time, and not constant.
3. STCs quantity you will receive from the solar system company varies based on your location and the time of creating.
4. The solar installation company must be in compliance with some conditions and rules set by the clean energy regulator in order to be approved for trading such STCs certificates.
5. The STCs certificates have 12-month validity time period after creation, and it will void if this time period exceeded.
The STCs certificates are actually treated as a rebate applied on your solar system price, so the solar installation companies usually make advertisements for such deducted prices to be more attractive to customers.