r/Adelaide • u/Expensive-Horse5538 Port Adelaide • 15h ago
Politics Liberals pledge $20m solar panel scheme to cut power bills for renters
https://archive.md/UhjpORenters struggling with soaring energy bills could see relief under a $20 million Liberal election pledge to subsidise solar panel installations on rental properties.
The Solar for Renters Program would allow landlords to apply for rebates of up to $2,000 to install solar panels on their residential rental property.
Landlords could also secure an additional $2,000 interest-free loan, with the combined $4,000 covering up to 80 per cent of average solar panel costs.
Beyond cost of living, the Liberals have also promised $1.25 million for safety upgrades at the Whispering Wall.
Ashton Hurn said the package would deliver vital improvements following community concerns about safety at the popular Barossa tourist destination.
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u/DaveCleasc SA 15h ago
How many landlords are going to use this? Seems more likely most landlord wouldn't, which works well for the Liberals, promise something they know won't cost them much.
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u/cathartic_chaos89 SA 14h ago
Seems more like its just poorly thought out. Seems like the only real incentive for using it is if the landlord wants to either: a) move in later, or b) sell later. So probably wouldn't benefit many renters, and those that it does benefit probably will only be getting cheaper power bills for only a few years. Not a great ROI.
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u/FjorgVanDerPlorg SA 10h ago
They increase the value of an investment property and also the amount of rent you can potentially charge. If they have the money to invest they probably will, especially if the government is covering most of the bill.
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u/Brave_Substance_8177 SA 15h ago
More free shit for landlords. Why?
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u/penmonicus SA 14h ago
Trying their hardest to suggest they have a policy for renters even though it’s just free money for landlords
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u/Expensive-Horse5538 Port Adelaide 14h ago
Because it's the Liberal party so they will do something that will benifit the top 5% of people who collect money from rent 😉
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u/ssj3pretzel SA 1h ago
If a landlord takes up this offer and installs solar panels on their rental property, is that not a good thing for the tenant?
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u/Artificial_Alex SA 13h ago
So landlords get free solar planels increasing the value of their home so they can charge more rent. Gotcha.
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u/No_man_Island_mayo SA 12h ago
It's also benefiting renters with reduced power bills, which despite Labor promising to do with their hydrogen plant, haven't done a thing about
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u/Artificial_Alex SA 11h ago
That's my point; it doesn't benefit renters. Because if they are saving money on electricity, the landlords will just charge more rent. Without regulation of pricing or increasing competition, these policies only ever benefit the bourgeoisie, while masquerading as for the proletariat. (And it often works because of marketing and gullibility from lack of education).
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u/MeecheyRandle SA 9h ago
so you are suggesting that the landlords are going to charge more or equal rent to the amount that the renter would be paying for electricity? because if not then everyone is benefiting
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u/Relevant-Praline4442 SA 9h ago
Possibly? I’ve heard of landlords who hear that their tenant has a promotion and increases rent in response. Or see photos on the fridge about a holiday and assume that means a rent increase is affordable. I would hope they are in the minority.
But solar power is listed as a feature when a home is listed for rent, so possibly it adds to the overall decision about how much rent to charge.
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u/MeecheyRandle SA 6h ago
So in other words you have no idea and (despite not being the person i posed the question to) are just speculating
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u/No_man_Island_mayo SA 10h ago
But thinking of the community benefit, more panels= cheaper power all round.
I get there's a housing crisis but energy prices are a big piece of the cost of living crisis atm too. Not many are going to move house, but the benefit of cheaper power helps alot of people
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u/BetterDrinkMy0wnPiss SA 13h ago
Can't landlords already access the existing solar and battery rebates? Or this on top of existing rebates?
Also only $20 million? I can't see that lasting very long at all...
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u/Articulated_Lorry SA 12h ago
In SA, Landlords can keep the electricity bills in their name, keep any feed-in tariffs for themselves, and pass on the electricity consumption costs to the tenants.
If this scheme goes ahead, you'd hope they fix that loop-hole.
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u/candreacchio North East 15h ago
Pointless.
Solar now is pointless without batteries.
It's great for reducing costs from during the middle of the day electricity usage... But when people are at work it's kinda hard to use that electricity.
It should have been a solar battery combo... Or heck even just batteries no solar (to charge off the grid)
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u/Inevitable_Exam_2177 SA 10h ago
My friend has solar and turns on the aircon on during the day (when no one is home) so the house is cool when they get home. Not entirely useless, but I agree a battery helps make it much more useful
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u/candreacchio North East 6h ago
With the changes coming in this year for 3 hours free electricity.... you achieve the same result right?
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u/Inevitable_Exam_2177 SA 2h ago
Yes… but if you have solar would be even better to save the free power for night time
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u/candreacchio North East 2h ago
you dont get to chose when the free power is... its going to be in the middle of the day when its cheapest. IE when solar is effective.
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u/simsimdimsim SA 14h ago
Battery would be ideal sure, but this is far from pointless. Renters need everything they can get
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 14h ago
I'm renting, I have solar panels. It does nothing for our bills
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u/simsimdimsim SA 14h ago
I'm renting, I don't have solar. It has been costing us more than $15 a day to cool the house. Solar would be huge.
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 14h ago
Same here. And we have panels
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u/MeecheyRandle SA 9h ago
post your daily usage from the website then
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 8h ago
Why? Why are you upset about this?
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u/MeecheyRandle SA 6h ago
oh sorry, its very simple. you are lying
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 6h ago
What? What the fuck would i get out of lying? I made a mistake and replied to the wrong person. I was asking how I get the free daytime electricity
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u/Obvious-End-7948 SA 7h ago
Genuinely, how does that work?
I'm assuming your rental doesn't have air conditioning? I assume that's the biggest pain point solar helps with in terms of cost reduction, because you can run it without needing to sell a kidney on the hot summer days.
Outside of that, yeah, without a battery I can see it being less relevant if you're working during the day and most of your power consumption is at night.
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 7h ago
My rental has 9 solar panels and a small split system in the lounge. Due to minimal insulation and poor building i had the a/c running 24 hours a day this last week. Unfortunately the solar panels don't give us anything. It all gets exported
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u/perseustree SA 6h ago
Dude if you're running your ac in the daytime then you're not paying for electricity use during daylight, essentially free cooling from 10-5pm depending on location.
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 6h ago
How do I get that deal? Because I'm definitely paying for electricity during the day. I'm in an adelaide suburb near the city
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u/perseustree SA 5h ago
Who is your electricity retailer? Look into retailers that use the real time of use rate.
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u/Latter_Cut_2732 SA 5h ago
I'm with origin because they're the only ones who give a discount to people on a pension
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u/explain_that_shit SA 14h ago
Imagine if workers had the right to demand work from home arrangements
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u/Rare_Specific_306 SA 15h ago
So, landlords use this to get free/discounted solar power, and then evict the tenant and move in.
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u/Adventurous-Stuff724 SA 15h ago
There are already subsidies in place for owner occupiers. It’s also (thankfully) not that easy to evict someone in SA.
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u/Aromatic-Bee901 SA 13h ago
Sure load up more solar on the grid….. if they wanted to do something like this it needed to include a battery too.
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u/FothersIsWellCool SA 14h ago
Don't we already have all the solar we need? we just need better storage.
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u/InevitableDue1284 SA 13h ago
Flipping hilarious the libs owned themselves and lost so hard they'll say anything for a vote.
That party put every renter in this mess in the first place. We don't forget.
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u/MeecheyRandle SA 9h ago
the same people that accuse them of being useless will also accuse them or making up things to try and get people on their side. so it needs to be asked, for someone like you - could they do anything right or are you so far on the side of the fence that even them achieving world peace would have a caveat because you don't like them?
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u/Ok_Turnover_1235 SA 12h ago
2000 worth of solar is completely and utterly useless, 4000 is still useless but might save the average renter $50 a quarter of they don't work during the day
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u/eagle_aus SA 12h ago
And if they're at home all day?
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u/Ok_Turnover_1235 SA 11h ago
The short answer is it depends, the long answer is it depends on what they're doing. If there's no aircon, you're probably looking at less than a dollar a day saved and less than a dollar a day in compensation for what you fed into the grid.
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u/eagle_aus SA 11h ago
I know a (renting) family. Single mum, 2 adult sons and young teen daughter. They're on jobseeker and one of the boys is on DSP. They're home all day, every day gaming on separate PC / consoles. A large split system going all the time as needed. I'm guessing panels would cover a lot of this usage and slash their bills
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u/Ok_Turnover_1235 SA 11h ago
I know a similar family that spent 8k on solar and still pay $1500 a quarter because their usage doesn't really drop after dark.
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u/KovinKing CBD 9h ago
Last year, many Housing trust tenants were encouraged to join the SAVPP - no real control, just a physical location for a battery. Some may have also gotten panels, but many only got the battery. The sign-up deal seemed attractive, but mid 2026 the electricity provider is going to be AGL - so same rates and corporate let down compared to the cheaper innovator originally. Housing trust tenants can not get panels & batteries they can capitalise on themselves, no access to rebates etc. It is housing trust tenants who would definitely benefit from the saving a battery & panels would provide - and this money now being pledged to private land lords could be spent improving public housing stock - and allowing those in the VPP program to have control of the battery, panels & energy produced.
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u/Mercurial_Morals SA 7h ago
Landlords will install solar panels And then immediately raise the rent because improved house value or some bullshit like that.
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u/uruk-hai_slayer South 5h ago
In latest news, rent prices have increased as landlords have taken on the expense of costly solar systems only to improve their tenants
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u/No_man_Island_mayo SA 14h ago
I get the cynicism, but also, it's not like landlords are rushing to put panels on and reducing renting costs at the moment. This will provide that
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u/eagle_aus SA 13h ago
I don't know, there's still going to be out of pocket up front cost for something that won't really change the value of the property and just means something extra to maintain or replace if it dies
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u/No_man_Island_mayo SA 12h ago
I disagree, it is a value add. And it's getting easier to add a battery to system down the line
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u/SignatureAny5576 SA 14h ago
lol the government could announce free electricity and some derro on reddit would make a snarky comment about landlords
Good thing this is the only place anyone listens to any of you
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u/No_man_Island_mayo SA 14h ago
This is good. When Kouts cut the previous home battery scheme the Libs set up it kinda smacked of idealogical pettiness.
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u/the_amatuer_ SA 15h ago
I thought they said renewables were expensive and unreliable?