Ten­ants will be able to nego­ti­ate with land­lords to install solar pan­els under a new gov­ern­ment pro­gram aimed at sub­si­dis­ing installations.

The Vic­to­ri­an gov­ern­ment will offer inter­est-free loans to sub­sidise house­hold solar pan­el instal­la­tions in a bid to make ener­gy more afford­able for renters and landlords.

Solar Homes Min­is­ter Lily D’Ambrosio announced on Mon­day that eli­gi­ble house­holds can apply for loans of up to $1850 to sup­ple­ment exist­ing rebates for home­own­ers who intro­duce the renew­able pow­er into their ener­gy mix.

“We know renters often dream of the chance to cut their ener­gy costs and this expan­sion will help thou­sands more get that chance,” said Solar Homes Min­is­ter Lily D’Ambrosio.

The gov­ern­ment said land­lords could work with their renters for a loan-repay­ment sys­tem where both par­ties con­tribute up to $19.27 a month to pay off the pan­els they say can reduce elec­tric­i­ty bills by up to $74 a month.

Solar Vic­to­ria, the state government’s solar retail­er, said if the total sys­tem cost less than $3700, there would be no upfront costs to new installations.

House­holds that earn a com­bined tax­able income of more than $180,000, whose home is val­ued at more than $3 mil­lion are not eli­gi­ble to apply.

The announce­ment comes as recent Cli­mate Coun­cil research sug­gest­ed thou­sands of jobs could be cre­at­ed in large-scale renew­able ener­gy schemes to tack­le steep job loss­es expect­ed dur­ing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report was the lat­est in a wave of research call­ing for gov­ern­ment stim­u­lus to focus on renew­ables, and was informed by cur­rent pro­pos­als from around the world, includ­ing the Euro­pean Green Deal.

Ms D’Ambrosio said it was good news for renters, whose abil­i­ty to par­tic­i­pate in solar pro­grams was lim­it­ed because they did­n’t own homes and could­n’t make the mod­i­fi­ca­tions on their own.

“We know renters often dream of the chance to cut their ener­gy costs and this expan­sion will help thou­sands more get that chance,” Ms D’Ambrosio said.

“Not own­ing your own home shouldn’t stop you from hav­ing access to cheap­er, clean­er solar energy.”

The loan is required to be repaid over the course of four years.

SOURCE: https://​www​.theage​.com​.au/