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Solar rebates in QLD,
explained straight
There's real money available for Queensland homes and businesses going solar. And a lot of misleading advertising around it. Here's how it actually works.
The federal small-scale incentive (STCs)
This is the big one, and it's the discount most people mean when they say "the solar rebate". Under the federal Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme, an eligible system earns small-scale technology certificates (STCs) based on its size, its location and how many years remain in the scheme.
In practice you never touch the certificates. You assign them to your installer, and the value comes off your invoice as an up-front discount. That's why a quote will often show a gross price, a certificate deduction, and a much smaller net figure you actually pay.
Two things worth knowing. First, the number of certificates a system earns steps down every year, and the scheme is legislated to wind up in 2030, so the same system attracts a smaller discount each year you delay. Second, eligibility depends on accreditation: the system has to be designed and installed by an accredited installer using approved components. This is exactly why some suspiciously cheap quotes are cheap.
Battery incentives
Battery storage support has moved around a lot in recent years, across both federal and Queensland state programs. Some have been capped, some means-tested, and several have closed once funding ran out.
Because of that churn, we don't publish battery rebate figures on this page. Anything we wrote here would likely be out of date within months. What we do instead is check what's currently open at the time you're quoting, tell you whether you qualify, and factor it into your numbers properly.
Feed-in tariffs
A feed-in tariff is what your retailer pays you for surplus solar you export to the grid. It is not a rebate and it's not set by us. It comes from your electricity retailer, and rates vary a lot between them.
The honest position in 2026: feed-in rates are much lower than they were a decade ago, and they'll likely keep drifting down as more solar goes on roofs. That's why we size systems around self-consumption, using your own power as it's generated, rather than around exporting as much as possible. It's also the main argument for adding storage.
What affects your eligibility
- Accredited installer and approved gear. Non-negotiable for the federal incentive.
- System size and location. Both feed directly into the certificate calculation.
- Property type. Some programs are limited to owner-occupiers, or exclude new builds, or cap system size.
- Grid connection approval. Your distributor has to approve the connection, and export limits apply in some areas.
- Timing. Programs open, close and change. What was available last quarter may not be now.
How we handle it
We work out which incentives apply to your specific property and system, apply what we can as an up-front discount, and lodge the paperwork ourselves. You see the net price on your quote. Not a headline number with conditions buried in the fine print.
If a program you've heard about doesn't apply to you, we'll say so. It's a much better conversation than the alternative, which is you finding out after the install.
What everyone asks
Almost never. The federal certificate incentive is assigned to your installer and comes off your invoice as an up-front discount. Cash-back style programs do exist from time to time at state level, but they're the exception, not the rule.
Usually one of four things: unaccredited installation that voids the incentive, bottom-tier panels and inverters, a switchboard upgrade left off the quote that reappears on install day, or a headline price that assumes a rebate you don't actually qualify for. Ask any cheap quote to itemise all four.
Generally no. The federal incentive shrinks each year until the scheme ends in 2030, so waiting usually costs you more in lost discount and lost bill savings than a future program is likely to hand back. If something genuinely worth waiting for is on the table, we'll tell you.
They're handled separately, under different rules and different programs. We'll check both when we quote you and show them as separate lines so you can see exactly what each part costs and saves.
The federal certificate incentive follows the installation, not the occupant, so investment properties are generally fine. You just need the owner's authority. Some state programs restrict eligibility to owner-occupiers. We'll check your situation specifically.
Find out what you
actually qualify for
We'll check every incentive available to your property and put the net price in writing.