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

Solar panels on the Sunshine Coast will save you money!

Have you been thinking about installing solar panels on the Sunshine Coast 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 the Sunshine Coast's best solar companies. The Sunshine Coast is a well known holiday hotspot, with 100km of stunning coastline dotted with pristine beaches and vibrant coastal towns each with their own distinct flavour and feel. As the name suggests, solar power systems installed on the Sunny Coast will produce a decent amount of electricity - A typical 5kW solar power system installed here will generate an average of 22.97kWh of electricity per day - which is enough to power the average family home!

Installing solar panels on the Sunshine Coast? 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 of up to 20c/kWh (get paid for 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 on the Sunshine Coast

There are extremely generous Federal Government Solar Rebates available to homeowners that install solar on the Sunshine Coast. 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) of up to 20c/kWh available to homeowners on the Sunshine Coast! 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 the Sunshine Coast region.

Climate on the Sunshine Coast - does solar make sense?

As the name suggests, solar absolutely makes sense on the Sunshine Coast! The Sunshine Coast’s climate is absolutely perfect for solar. Summers are hot with an average high of 28.6°, while our sunny winters are warm, with an average low of 21.3°. The level of solar irradiation on the Sunshine Coast is 4.97kWh/sqm/day, meaning that the sun is beaming 4.97kWh of power per square metre onto solar panels you install on the Sunshine Coast every single day!

Solar power installations on the Sunshine Coast

As of August 2019, there are more than 40,000 solar power installations on the Sunshine Coast, meaning a massive one in four homes on the Sunshine Coast are already covered in solar panels.

Average solar system size on the Sunshine Coast

The average solar system size on the Sunshine Coast is 4.0kW. During the early years of solar power in Australia (when installing solar was about 5X as expensive as it is now), smaller systems were very popular and energy retailers would sell solar systems to their customers that were too small to completely reduce their electricity bills (unsurprisingly).

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 on the Sunshine Coast (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 Sunshine Coast

A 6.6kW solar power system is perfect for the Sunshine Coast'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.

The average daily output of a high-quality 6.6kW system installed on the Sunshine Coast is 27.7kWh of clean, renewable energy. The high daily production means you'll be generating roughly 10,110 kWh per year, saving you $2000+ per year on electricity costs!

At the time of writing (March 2020), a good quality 6.6kW solar power system installed on the Sunshine Coast 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 on the Sunshine Coast.

A 6.6kW solar system installed on the Sunshine Coast will pay for itself within 3-5 years, making it an attractive investment!

Solar panel tilt angle on the Sunshine Coast

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. On the Sunshine Coast, the perfect solar panel tilt angle is 26.6°.

Ideal solar panel direction on the Sunshine Coast

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 on the Sunshine Coast

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 on the Sunshine Coast! 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!