Solar panels in Vincentia

As an estimate, a 6.6kW system starts from $7,410, a 10kW system starts from $10,300 and a 13.2kW system starts from $11,250 (with battery prices starting from $4,290), with the STC discount for postcode 2540 already taken off (incl. GST for metro areas; regional areas subject to freight and travel costs). Those are starting estimates for a straightforward install, not a fixed price. Being on the coast does not change the price of the system, though mounting hardware suited to salt air is the right specification here rather than an upgrade.

Vincentia is in STC Zone 3, rating 1.382 — the same zone as Sydney, so nothing is lost by being down the coast. 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.

It can be, but the sums are genuinely different and we would rather say so than sell you a system on numbers that assume someone is home. Solar pays best when you use what you generate: on the figures this site models with, a kWh you use is worth about 6 times a kWh you export. An empty house uses almost nothing, so nearly all of it is exported at the lower rate, and the payback stretches out accordingly. Where it does stack up is a house that is occupied through summer when generation is highest, one that is let out through the year, or one with a pool, a heat pump or air-conditioning running while nobody is in it.

Often, yes — and that is an unusual thing for an installer to say. If the house is empty most of the year, the extra panels on a larger system spend most of their life exporting at a few cents. A system sized closer to the base load the house actually has when empty, plus the summer weeks when it is full, can pay back sooner than a bigger one. We will model both from how you actually use the place and show you the difference rather than defaulting to the larger number.

Then the picture improves, because the house is occupied and consuming far more of what the roof makes — and running costs are yours rather than a guest's. It also raises a practical point: you are not there to notice a fault. Monitoring with an alert is worth setting up properly on a let property, because a system that quietly stopped in March is money you do not get back in September.

The panels cope — they are glass and aluminium, built for weather. Mounting hardware is where salt exposure accumulates over 25 years, so fasteners and rails should be specified for a coastal environment, with no mixed metals in contact. This close to open water that is the right specification rather than an optional extra, and any installer quoting here should be able to tell you which grades they use without looking it up.

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. The same rules apply across the 2540 postcode.