Solar Panels in Emerald? Compare the best solar installation deals now!

Solar panels in Emerald will save you money!

Have you been thinking about installing solar panels in Emerald but don't know where to start? We have done the hard work so that you can educate yourself about solar power, and then request quotes in seconds from Emerald's best solar companies. On the Nogoa River, Emerald is situated in the Central Highlands region of Queensland approximately 270km west of Rockhampton. A thriving rural business centre of the region, the town is a gateway to the famous nearby sapphire gemfields and Lake Maraboon. The hot climate of Emerald makes it the perfect place to install solar power, as the city enjoys plenty of sunshine everyday. Residents of Emerald have been taking advantage of the sunshine and have been slashing their power bills by making the switch to clean, renewable energy. A typical 5kW solar power system installed in Emerald will generate an average of 25.10kWh of electricity per day - which is enough to power the average family home!

Installing solar panels in Emerald? Key benefits!

• Slash your power bill by up to 70%!
• Protect yourself against continually rising power prices
• There's a generous $3600+ Solar Rebate for a 6.6kW solar system
• Solar feed-in tariffs (get paid for the energy you don't use)
• Generate clean, renewable energy and protect our future
• 3–5 year return on investment!

Solar rebate and feed-in tariff in Emerald

There are extremely generous solar rebates available to homeowners that install solar in Emerald. Please see the 'latest info on solar rebates in QLD' section further down the page to see the solar rebate you are entitled to for various common solar system sizes. There is a solar feed-in tariff (FIT) available to homeowners in Emerald! The feed-in tariff is the amount you get paid by your energy retailer for the excess solar energy back you feed into the grid! Some retailers are far more generous than others when it comes to paying you for solar energy so we created a table further down this page of every energy retailer in QLD and the solar FIT rate that they offer homeowners in Emerald.

Climate in Emerald - does solar make sense?

Emerald’s climate makes it an absolutely perfect place to install solar power. The summers are hot with an average high of 34.3°, while our sunny winters are warm, with an average low of 23.6°. The level of solar irradiation in Emerald is 5.47 kWh/sq m/day, meaning that the sun is beaming 5.47 kWh of power per square metre onto solar panels you install in Emerald every single day!

Solar power installations in Emerald

As of August 2019, there are 1,507 solar power installations in Emerald, meaning 1 in 4 of the available homes in Emerald are already covered in solar panels!

Average solar system size in Emerald

The average solar system size in Emerald is 5.8kW. We receive a lot of enquiries from homeowners who would like to add panels to an existing solar system they installed a few years ago in Emerald (which can be a costly exercise), so in general, we recommend installing as many panels as your budget and roof space allows.

The 6.6kW solar system is a great system that will ‘future proof’ you against continually rising electricity prices and will enable you to take full advantage of the generous government solar rebate as it stands.

6.6kW solar system in Emerald

A 6.6kW solar power system is perfect for Emerald’s homes. 6.6kW solar systems typically come with 20 x 330W solar panels, and a 5kW inverter - allowing you to claim 33% more solar rebate than a 5kW system, and also help you to produce more power during low light conditions. Residential solar panels are roughly 1.7m long by 1m wide - so installing a 6.6kW system on your home will require at least 34m2 of roof area.

At the time of writing (February 2020), a good quality 6.6kW solar power system installed in Emerald will cost you between $5200 - $9500. The higher end of this price bracket is for premium panels (LG, Kyocera, Sunpower) installed with panel-level optimisation (micro-inverters or power optimisers). The best way to compare solar power systems prices is to click 'Get Quotes' at the top of the screen and our 3 highest rated solar installers will provide you with quotes specific to your home in Emerald.

A 6.6kW solar system installed in Emerald will pay for itself within 3-5 years, making it an attractive investment!

Notable solar installations in Emerald

Emerald Marist College have installed 376 solar panels (100kW system) on several roofs of the school’s buildings to help mitigate rising electricity prices. The new system will assist in reducing the school’s power bills by 30%, with over $40,000+ annual savings expected to be diverted into other valuable learning resources.

Solar panel tilt angle in Emerald

The slope of your roof is usually the best angle at which to install your solar panels. If you have a flat roof, your chosen solar company will fit tilt frames, to ensure that your solar panels are at the ideal angle for maximum energy production. In Emerald, the perfect solar panel tilt angle is 23.5°.

Ideal solar panel direction in Emerald

The direction that your solar panels face can have a huge impact on the overall amount of energy produced by your system. In Australia, a north-facing solar system will produce the most energy - with peak production during the middle of the day when the sun is at its highest point.

However, solar systems installed on the North-East or North-West aspects of the roof will produce only slightly less power than North facing installations (see image below for the difference in energy production for different roof aspects).

As solar panel prices and feed-in tariff rates have fallen, East-West facing installations are becoming increasingly popular because they start generating power earlier in the day and finish later in the afternoon - which follows most families’ energy usage patterns more closely. This means that even though the system is producing less energy overall, more of the energy is being self-consumed making East-West installations an attractive prospect.

When deciding which aspect of your roof best suits your energy requirements, you need to take into consideration how you use power in your home. If you have kids at school and are away from the house for the majority of the day then it could be beneficial to install an east-west solar array.

Maximising value from your solar system in Emerald

We recommend cleaning your solar system at least once per year and always self-consuming as much of your solar energy as possible to maximise the return from your solar investment in Emerald! For households where trees might cause shading on the roof, we recommend the use of power optimisers or mirco-inverters to maximise the output of your system and make sure only the shaded panel is losing efficiency (not the entire string of panels) as explained in our solar tips guide.

Our solar tips guide is full of information about the best solar panels and the brands you can trust section provides easy solar panels comparison.

We will send you a copy of our Definitive Solar Tips Guide when you request your free quotes!

Rebates for installing solar panels in QLD

Homeowners installing solar panels in sunny Queensland are entitled to the Federal Government's STC 'rebate' - more commonly referred to as the 'solar rebate'. This financial incentive comes in the form of Small-Scale Technology Certificates (or STCs). When you install a solar power system, a certain number of STCs are created based on the size and the location of your solar installation. Each STC carries a monetary value, and the total value of these certificates equates to your 'solar rebate.' The more solar panels that you install, the bigger the value of your 'solar rebate'.

Your chosen solar company will handle the application for the rebate on your behalf and apply the value of this rebate as a discount at the point of sale. You can read more in-depth about the STC rebate in our recent blog post on the subject. To make life easy, we have calculated the value of the STC rebate you are entitled to for common solar system sizes here in Queensland below:

System Size	Federal Government Rebate (STC's)	State Government Rebate
2 kW	$1080	Solar for renters (trial)
3 kW	$1620	Solar for renters (trial)
4 kW	$2160	Solar for renters (trial)
5 kW	$2736	Solar for renters (trial)
6.6 kW	$3600	Solar for renters (trial)
10 kW	$5472	Solar for renters (trial)

*Please note that the STC rebate calculations are based on solar panels installed in Brisbane, QLD (Zone 3) using an STC price of $36.00.

In addition to the Federal Government STC rebate, you may be eligible for the following Queensland State Government rebate:

Solar for Renters (trial) - rebates of up to $3500 are available to landlords that install a solar system on their rental property. During the trial phase, the rental property must be in the Bundaberg, Gladstone, or Townsville local government areas. There are 1000 rebates available during the trial of this scheme.

Feed-in tariff rates offered by retailers in QLD

Solar feed-in tariffs (FITs) are the amount you get paid by your energy retailer for the excess energy your solar panels export back into the grid. During the day, it’s typical for your solar power system to generate more power than is being used in your home. This excess means that if you have a grid-connected solar system, the energy you don't use feeds back into the grid, and your energy retailer will pay you a fixed amount per kWh of energy that you send to them. The retailer-provided solar FITs listed here do not include any bonus feed-in tariff that may be provided by the QLD State Government.

Energy Retailer	Min rate (per kWh)	Max rate (per kWh)
Origin Energy	8.0c	20.0c
Red Energy	6.0c	17.0c
Energy Australia	16.1c	16.1c
Energy Locals	10.0c	16.0c
AGL	8.6c	15.0c
DC Power Co	15.0c	15.0c
Amaysim	0.0c	14.0c
Click Energy	8.0c	12.0c
Diamond Energy	0.0c	12.0c
Discover Energy	6.0c	11.5c
Alinta Energy	0.0c	11.0c
Mojo Power	0.0c	10.0c
Locality Planning Energy	10.0c	10.0c
Simply Energy	0.0c	10.0c
Powershop	9.5c	9.5c
Powerdirect	8.6c	8.6c
Powerclub	0.0c	8.5c
Dodo	8.5c	8.5c
QEnergy	8.0c	8.0c
ReAmped Energy	8.0c	8.0c
Elysian Energy	7.9c	7.9c
Ergon Energy	7.8c	7.8c
Future X Power	7.0c	7.0c
Kogan Energy	6.2c	6.2c
1st Energy	6.0c	6.0c

**The feed-in tariff rates you are entitled to vary depending on the energy plan you choose with the retailer. Feed-in tariff rates displayed are correct as of March 2020.

Simple guide to sizing your solar system in QLD

Choosing the right system size depends on many factors, including how much power you use during daylight hours, your roof orientation, whether shading will be an issue, and how much roof space you have at your home or business. In general, if you can afford to pay your power bills, then you can afford to invest in solar because the system will pay for itself in energy savings. As a rough guide, you can compare the average daily power usage on your power bill to the average daily output of common system sizes we have calculated in the table below:

System Size	Avg daily output	Return on Investment
2 kW	8.4 kWh	3 - 5 years
3 kW	12.6 kWh	3 - 5 years
4 kW	16.8 kWh	3 - 5 years
5 kW	21.0 kWh	3 - 5 years
6.6 kW	27.7 kWh	3 - 5 years
10 kW	42.0 kWh	3 - 5 years

*Please note that the location used for above the daily output calculations is Brisbane, QLD - based on the Clean Energy Council GC Design Guidelines.

Finding the best solar panels for your home in QLD!

In order to provide the best possible service to Queenslanders, we have taken the QLD Government's getting started with solar checklist, along with the Clean Energy Council's recommendations and combined them with over 10 years solar industry experience to create our solar buying tips guide. We will send you our exclusive 2020 Solar Buying Tips Guide when your request your obligation free quotes!

We have proudly helped tens of thousands of homeowners compare solar quotes in Queensland over the past five years. There are now 707,397 homeowners in the sunshine state enjoying the benefits of solar power in their homes!