Solar battery loans

As part of your application you will need to supply:

• identification – 2 forms of ID
• income proof
• property ownership proof.

Attach copies of 2 of the following:

• Driver’s licence
• Medicare card Australian passport
• Australian birth certificate Australian citizenship certificate
• Foreign passport (with a valid Australian Visa)
• Immicard.

Make sure the names on both documents are the same. You can find out more about your Australian citizenship by visiting the Australian Government Department of Home Affairs website.

To prove you own the property we will need a copy of your Council Rates Notice or Certificate of Title. If you don’t have one, contact us.

If there is more than one owner listed, we need proof of income documents for each person from the same financial year.

Find out what we will accept as your proof of income documents.

You need a quote to start the loan application process. It must be uploaded into our portal by an authorised retailer. It’s a good idea to get at least 3 quotes for similar systems in size and function to compare.

We recommend that you don’t accept a quote in writing or pay a deposit before you know you are eligible and pass the financial check. If you do pay a deposit, make sure it is fully refundable.

Ask your retailer to get pre-approval from the Distributed Network Service Provider (DNSP) to connect it to the grid. This needs to happen before they upload your quote to our portal. Make sure you understand what the DNSP is offering you.

Any solar export constraints can change your feed-in tariff and your ability to join Virtual Power Plants. Find out more about DNSPs.

When we confirm that you are eligible we will ask you to complete a 3-part financial check:

• Credit check report
• Financial self-declaration
• Proof of income

We need to assess if you are able to pay off the loan to meet our responsible lending requirements.

Equifax offer a free service to create a credit report. It takes around 10 minutes. Credit check through Equifax.

You must assess your living expenses and income and ‘declare’ them in a form that we will send to you. You will also need to supply supporting documents, such as recent pay slips, to confirm the information.

If there is more than one applicant, we will need a credit check and declaration from each applicant.

The final step in your loan application is to upload the credit report (make sure it is less than 30 days old) and financial self-declaration and proof of income documents.

When we confirm you are eligible we will email you a unique QR code. The Battery QR code is your eligibility number and provides an extra level of safety.

Your installer must scan it onsite on the day of your installation, and before any work starts, so we know that the installation will be done by an authorised installer.

Once installation is complete, the loan amount will be paid to your retailer and deducted from your invoice. You pay the retailer the balance (the total amount minus the interest free loan amount and any other Solar Victoria rebates you may have applied for).

Loan repayments will be debited from your account, starting 30 days after we approve the installation. You will receive an email from us to confirm this.

You then make monthly repayments of up to $183.34 over 4 years.

This will depend on your home’s energy usage, however for many households they will not. Depending on system size, Victorians with both PV and a home battery could save more than $1,400 per year on energy costs. Annual payments for the maximum interest free battery loan value are $2,200 per year.

We can provide support to you if you are experiencing financial hardship and having trouble meeting your repayments. To apply for financial hardship support, go to hardship support for customers before calling us on 1300 376 393 Monday to Friday 9:00am-5:00pm (except public holidays).

You can apply for a solar battery loan AND a solar panel (PV) rebate and interest-free loan to install them at the same time. You will receive a separate email for each quote and you must complete a separate eligibility application for each of the products. If you would like to apply for a hot water rebate, you will need to confirm you meet the eligibility criteria for that rebate and submit a separate application.