Solar panels in Baulkham Hills

As an estimate, a 6.6kW system comes to about $3,990, a 10kW to about $5,490 and a 13.2kW to about $7,990, with the STC discount for postcode 2153 already taken off. Those are typical figures for a straightforward install, not a fixed price. Two-storey homes are the common variation here — the access equipment adds to the job — and so is a tile roof that needs careful flashing. Both are itemised in your written quote after we have seen the roof.

Baulkham Hills is in STC Zone 3, rating 1.382. In 2026 a 6.6kW system creates 45 certificates, worth roughly $1,710 off the price, and a 10kW system 69 certificates, roughly $2,622. The discount shrinks each January until the scheme ends in 2030, and the exact amount depends on the certificate market on your installation date. Replacing an old system does not disqualify you — a new system claims certificates on its own capacity.

Often, yes. A lot of roofs around the Hills still carry a 1.5 to 3kW system installed while the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme was paying a gross feed-in tariff. That scheme closed on 31 December 2016, so those systems now earn an ordinary retailer feed-in rate like any other — the generous tariff is not something you can lose by upgrading, because it has already ended. What you gain is capacity: a modern 10kW system on the same roof generates several times as much, and panels from that era are usually near the end of their performance warranty anyway. We will tell you honestly if your existing system is still doing its job.

The distribution network that owns the poles and wires in your street approves it — not your retailer — and we lodge the application for you. That network also decides how much your system may export: on a flexible export connection, eligible customers can send up to 10kW per phase back to the grid most of the time, while a fixed export limit caps exports at 1.5kW. Larger homes around Baulkham Hills are more often three-phase than the Sydney average, and on three phases that allowance applies per phase — which is why a bigger system can make sense here where it would not elsewhere.

Your network has said it will affect rooftop solar from late 2026. It is a last-resort safety measure that lets the network briefly curtail exports during rare emergencies; day to day you would not notice it, and it does not stop your system powering your own home. We build every new system to meet the requirements in force when it is installed, so it is not something you need to plan around.

Rarely, but shade does change the design. Established gardens are part of why people live in Baulkham Hills, and a large gum on the northern side will cost you generation in winter when the sun sits low. The fix is usually layout plus optimisers or microinverters, so one shaded panel does not drag down the rest of a string. We look at the winter sun path at the assessment rather than judging the roof on a clear summer morning, and if a roof genuinely will not pay for itself we say so.

Usually not. In NSW most rooftop solar on a house is exempt development and needs no development application. Most of the 2153 postcode sits in The Hills Shire Council, and parts of Winston Hills fall under the City of Parramatta instead — both treat ordinary rooftop solar the same way. Heritage-listed homes and heritage conservation areas are the exception, and we check that before we quote.