Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Rebates for solar hot water systems for North East homes

Sophie Mirabella, the Federal Member for Indi, is encouraging residents of the North-East to find out more about how the Australian Government’s $252.2 million Solar Hot Water Rebate can help them reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and save on energy costs.

Rebates of $1000 are available to households to install eligible solar and heat pump water heaters in their homes.

“Solar and heat pump hot water systems have higher installation but lower operating costs than electric systems,” Mrs Mirabella said.

“This initiative will help Australians overcome the initial costs and reduce the payback time for solar hot water systems which will help families save money in the longer term.”

“Hot water heating is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions from the average Australian home.”

“By replacing high emission water heating technologies almost a million tonnes of greenhouse gases could be prevented from entering the atmosphere each year.”

“Typically, each system will reduce annual greenhouse emissions by 3-5 tonnes and will save households on average $300 in annual electricity costs.”

The rebates will be available to applicants who are replacing existing electric storage hot water systems with eligible solar or heat pump systems purchased and installed after 17 July 2007 as verified by a registered agent. The home must be a principal place of residence and the applicant’s taxable family income must be less than $100,000.

The initiative will work in conjunction with the existing renewable energy certificates available for Australian householders under the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target. The bonus is that now both renewable energy certificates and the rebate can be claimed.

It builds on other Howard Government measures to help people reduce their greenhouse gas emissions including rebates to help people install solar power systems (photovoltaics), rebates to install renewable energy generation equipment in remote parts of Australia, and the world-leading initiative to legislate to phase out inefficient light bulbs.

“I encourage local residents to visit the website to find out more information about the Solar Hot Water Rebate offer and see if they are eligible to apply,” Mrs Mirabella said.

For more information: www.greenhouse.gov.au/rebates


Powered by ScribeFire.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home