More has moved in the federal scheme this year than in the previous five, and most homeowners have it wrong.
This page dates faster than anything else on the site. It reflects the position as at August 2026. Before you repeat any figure here in an advertisement or on a quote, check the current position at cer.gov.au.
The panel discount your customers call "the rebate" is the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme, and it works by creating small-scale technology certificates based on how much generation is deemed to happen between installation and the scheme's close in 2030.
Because the end date is fixed, the deeming period falls by one year every year. A system installed in 2025 was deemed over six years. A system installed in 2026 is deemed over five. That happens again each January until the scheme finishes.
This is the one legitimate urgency argument you have on panels, and it is worth making properly. The discount on the same system falls in a step every January, by a predictable amount you can calculate for the customer in front of you. That is a real reason to move before Christmas. It is also modest, so quoting it as a cliff is the kind of overreach that gets complaints.
The Cheaper Home Batteries Program began on 1 July 2025 and put batteries into the same certificate scheme. It has since been trimmed.
From 1 May 2026, the battery certificate factor dropped from 8.4 to 6.8, a cut of roughly a fifth. More significantly for how you plan a year, the step-downs now happen every six months instead of annually. The discount also tapers with size: the full factor applies to the first 14kWh of usable capacity, 60 per cent of it between 14kWh and 28kWh, and 15 per cent between 28kWh and 50kWh.
The subsidy per kilowatt hour is at its best on the first 14kWh and falls away sharply after that, which quietly reshapes what a sensible battery looks like.
Solar advertising attracts regulator attention, and rebate claims are where installers get caught. The Australian Consumer Law applies to every statement you make in an ad, on a website, and verbally at a kitchen table.
| Do not say | Say instead |
|---|---|
| "Government rebate ending soon" | "The certificate discount steps down each January. On this system that is about $X less if you install after the new year." |
| "Free solar" or "no cost to you" | "$X after the certificate discount is applied." Show the number before and after. |
| "$0 upfront" with the finance in small print | Name the finance product, the term and the total repayable in the same size type as the headline. |
| "Last chance before prices rise" | Nothing. If you cannot point at a published date and figure, do not imply a deadline. |
| "Save $2,000 a year" | "Based on your usage of X kWh and your current tariff, our estimate is $X to $Y a year," with the assumptions written down. |
The general test is whether an ordinary person reading your ad would form an accurate impression. A technically true statement that leaves the wrong impression still breaches the law, and "the customer misunderstood" has never been a defence.
The playbook covers this chapter in full, with every scheme figure sourced and dated, plus lead costs by channel, the Google Business Profile playbook and our own reader data. Twenty pages, free.
From the questions our readers arrive with, four misconceptions come up constantly. Each one is an opening for an installer who corrects it plainly.
They expect money back from the government after installation. Explaining that it is a discount assigned at the point of sale, and showing it as a line on the quote, removes a real anxiety.
The scheme winds down on a published schedule to 2030. Saying so, and showing the schedule, makes you the trustworthy quote in the pile.
The certificate discount is federal. State battery and interest-free loan offers sit on top and vary. Know which apply in your state and be exact.
On batteries it is the reverse after 14kWh. This is a genuinely useful thing to explain, and the installer who explains it looks like the honest one.
There is one more change worth its own page: from October 2026, systems between 100kW and 1MW are intended to move into the same certificate scheme. That is the commercial window.
Deeming period reduction and scheme close in 2030: Clean Energy Regulator, Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Battery certificate factor change from 8.4 to 6.8 on 1 May 2026, the move to six-monthly step-downs, and the 14kWh, 28kWh and 50kWh tapering brackets: Cheaper Home Batteries Program, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, as reported August 2026. Verified 17 August 2026. Review date February 2027, or immediately on any change to either scheme.
Five guides. Written once, reviewed every six months.
Lead prices by channel with the sources named, the Google Business Profile playbook, a follow-up cadence that stops instead of nagging, the 2026 rebate picture, and what our own readers research before they buy. Useful whether or not you ever advertise with us.