Australia’s great solar buy-back: Business offered 6-month break from power bills

One Step Off The Grid

A second Australian solar buy-back scheme has been announced in the space of one week, the latest being a partnership between Smart Commercial Solar teaming up with not-for-profit Clear Sky Solar Investments.

The offering from Smart and Clear Sky aims to give companies struggling through the Covid-19 crisis an opportunity use their existing rooftop solar system to unlock cash flow, get a short breather from paying bills, and then continued access to discounted power.

The companies say the planned “widespread buyback” of existing commercial solar systems apply to solar systems valued at up to $2 million dollars, which would be bought at a premium of 105 per cent of the paid value if the system is under a year old.

The original owner of the solar array would then get free energy for the first six months of operation, and then buy the energy generated back from the investors at costs lower than current utility prices.

The approach puts a Coronavirus twist on Clear Sky’s usual modus operandi, which uses investor funds to pay for the installation of solar panels on a company’s roof, and uses the power generated from those panels to pays them back over a roughly seven-year term.

To read the original story on RenewEconomy sister site One Step Off The Grid, click here…

RenewEconomy and its sister sites One Step Off The Grid and The Driven will continue to publish throughout the Covid-19 crisis, posting good news about technology and project development, and holding government, regulators and business to account. But as the conference market evaporates, and some advertisers pull in their budgets, readers can help by making a voluntary donation here to help ensure we can continue to offer the service free of charge and to as wide an audience as possible. Thankyou for your support.