Sustainability grants and rebates

Grants and rebates can help you to reduce the upfront expense of installing energy and water saving measures in your home. Reducing energy and water consumption can also reduce the future running costs of your home or business.

Federal and State Governments offer a range of rebates and other assistance to help you to live greener.

Australian Government initiatives

  • The Australian Government’s Energy.gov.au website offers the ability to search for rebates, grants or support according to location or type of rebate.
  • The Australian Government’s Clean Energy Regulator is the Government body responsible for administering legislation that will reduce carbon emissions and increase the use of clean energy. The Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme creates a financial incentive for households and small businesses to install eligible small-scale renewable energy systems such as solar panel systems, small-scale wind systems, small-scale hydro systems, solar water heaters and air source heat pumps. The rebate is determined by the number of Small-Scale Technology Certificates an installation attracts.

Victorian Government initiatives

  • The Victorian Energy Saver website offers households and businesses advice and discounts. These discounts include energy saving products and how you can save on energy costs with solar.
  • Solar Hot Water incentives are available to all regional Victorians who wish to upgrade or replace their current gas and electric water heating systems with a solar hot water system. The installation of a solar or heat pump water heater can generate certificates, and the value of these certificates can be provided as a discount on the cost of installation. 
  • The Solar Homes program run by Solar Victoria, provides households and businesses rebates for installation of household solar panels, subject to certain conditions. There are rebates for solar panels (PV), solar hot water and solar batteries.
  • Sustainability Victoria regularly provides opportunities for grants and funding. They use their LinkedIn page to announce upcoming opportunities, or you can register for their grants and funding alerts via their website.

Other programs

MASH (More Australian Solar Homes)

MASH is a Central Victorian community solar bulk-buy program that offers high quality systems and consolidates the collective buying power of residents to negotiate heavily discounted prices. It has been rolled out across the City of Greater Bendigo, Mount Alexander, Hepburn and Macedon Ranges shires. It is organised by the Hub Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation in Castlemaine.

In 2018, MASH received the Community Environment Award from Environment Victoria in recognition of the program facilitating solar panel installations for over 1,000 homes in central Victoria.    

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