{"id":35016,"date":"2019-11-18T06:53:39","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T20:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=35016"},"modified":"2019-11-19T11:41:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T01:11:08","slug":"solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Victoria\u2019s Industry and Consumer Reference Group Established"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-35018\" src=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg.jpg\" alt=\"Solar Victoria Industry and Consumer Reference Group\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg-1024x538.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Industry and Consumer Reference Group (ICRG) advising Solar Victoria kicked off on Friday with its first meeting.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The ICRG is to provide recommendations to Solar Victoria in relation to the operation of the Andrews Government&#8217;s Solar Homes program, which is supporting the installation of rooftop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/solar101.html\"> solar<\/a> systems, batteries and solar hot water systems for 770,000 households across Victoria over ten years.<\/p>\n<p>The ICRG will provide guidance on a wide range of issues, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Safety<\/li>\n<li>Standards and quality<\/li>\n<li>Consumer protection<\/li>\n<li>Skills and workforce development<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Chair of the ICRG is Ivor Frischknecht, former CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI\u2019m very pleased to be taking part in the process of further developing the Solar Homes program and ensuring industry and consumer interests are not just protected, but that potential opportunities we identify are considered,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solar.vic.gov.au\/industry-consumer-reference-group-meets-first-time\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said Mr. Frischknecht<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Also participating in the ICRG:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Solar Cutters<\/li>\n<li>Clean Energy Council<\/li>\n<li>Smart Energy Council<\/li>\n<li>Electrical Trades Union<\/li>\n<li>National Electrical &amp; Communication Association<\/li>\n<li>Consumer Action Law Centre<\/li>\n<li>Energy Networks Australia<\/li>\n<li>Other representatives of small, medium and large solar businesses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe Industry and Consumer Reference Group will ensure we stay on track to delivering cleaner, cheaper energy to Victorian households and adapt to changes in this fast-paced sector,&#8221; said Solar Victoria CEO Stan Krpan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Solar Panel Rebate Release Today<\/h2>\n<p>The next release of Victoria&#8217;s hugely popular solar panel rebates is at 9 AM today. There will be 3,250 rebates on offer, plus whatever top-up from expired applications associated with the previous allocation. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-battery-rebate-mb1277\/\">In the last round<\/a> the top-up was an additional 1,274 &#8211; an alarmingly high figure.<\/p>\n<p>This will be the last scheduled release of 3,250 rebates. In December there will be two rounds of 2,500 each, then in January two rounds of 2,000 each before increasing back to 2,500 per round to the end of the financial year. There&#8217;s also a drop in the maximum value of the rebate in January &#8211; from $2,225 to $1,888. This will coincide with a scheduled reduction in Australia&#8217;s national &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/panels\/rebate\/\">solar rebate<\/a>&#8220;, which is being gradually phased out and can be claimed in addition to Victoria&#8217;s incentive.<\/p>\n<p>Further information on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/victorian-solar-rebate.html\">Victoria&#8217;s solar panel rebate here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Solar Battery Rebate Update<\/h2>\n<p>At the beginning of the month, Solar Victoria announced residents in an additional 80 postcodes were now able to apply for the state\u2019s Solar Homes battery incentive, which offers up to a $4,838 rebate on an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/battery-storage\/comparison-table\/\">battery system<\/a>. The announcement coincided with a new release of 456 rebates, with this round running until the end of February 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Uptake of the last round was sluggish, largely due to it only being available in a couple of dozen postcodes. This round seems to be heading out the door a little quicker, with 409 still available as at early this morning. The incentive is only available to households that haven&#8217;t already received a Solar Homes rebate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Industry and Consumer Reference Group (ICRG) advising Solar Victoria kicked off on Friday with its first meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":35018,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-solar-battery-news","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.2 (Yoast SEO v27.2) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Solar Victoria\u2019s Industry and Consumer Reference Group Established<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Industry and Consumer Reference Group (ICRG) that is to advise Solar Victoria kicked off on Friday with its first meeting.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Solar Victoria\u2019s Industry and Consumer Reference Group Established\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Industry and Consumer Reference Group (ICRG) that is to advise Solar Victoria kicked off on Friday with its first meeting.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SolarQuotes Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SolarQuotes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-17T20:23:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-11-19T01:11:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Michael Bloch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@solar_quotes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Michael Bloch\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66afd571aa00c2e442f0192ebac2f6f1\"},\"headline\":\"Solar Victoria\u2019s Industry and Consumer Reference Group Established\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-11-17T20:23:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-11-19T01:11:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/\"},\"wordCount\":478,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-victoria-icrg-mb1295\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/solar-victoria-icrg.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General Solar &amp; 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Solar Victoria administers the state's hugely popular Solar Homes Program, which provides rebates and\/or interest-free loans for eligible households to install solar panels, solar hot water\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Solar Victoria compliance enforcement","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/solar-victoria-suspensions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/solar-victoria-suspensions.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/solar-victoria-suspensions.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/solar-victoria-suspensions.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/solar-victoria-suspensions.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":29799,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/victoria-solar-crisis-mb1030\/","url_meta":{"origin":35016,"position":2},"title":"Victorian Solar Crisis Talks Continue","author":"Michael Bloch","date":"April 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Clean Energy Council is continuing talks with the Victorian Government concerning the feast to famine situation caused by the sudden (temporary) end to the state's Solar Homes Package rebate for solar power systems. The first tranche of the program[1. 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Solar Victoria is keen to get the word out to consumers and industry it is taking the issues of quality and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General Solar &amp; Storage News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General Solar &amp; Storage News","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/category\/solar-battery-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Monitoring of Victoria's solar rebate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/vic-solar-rebate-monitoring.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/vic-solar-rebate-monitoring.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/vic-solar-rebate-monitoring.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/vic-solar-rebate-monitoring.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28867,"url":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/mandatory-solar-retailer\/","url_meta":{"origin":35016,"position":5},"title":"Bad For Consumers &#038; Bad For Business: CEC Approved Solar Retailer Scheme Now Mandatory In Victoria","author":"Ronald Brakels","date":"March 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week the Clean Energy Council announced their formerly voluntary Approved Solar Retailer Scheme would be -- with the smallest of fig leafs -- made mandatory for all companies installing residential rooftop solar power systems in Victoria. 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