How Much Do Solar Panels Cost in Melbourne? Real 2026 Prices, Rebates Included

Every second enquiry we get starts the same way: "just roughly, how much?" And every installer in Melbourne gives the same annoying answer: it depends.

It does depend. But "it depends" is a cop-out if you don't then explain what it depends on. So here are our actual numbers, what's already been deducted before you see them, and the rebates that are genuinely still running as of September 2026.

The headline number

A 6.6 kW solar system with a 5 kW inverter, installed on a standard single-storey roof in Melbourne, starts at $4,455 including GST with us. That covers panels, inverter, mounting, wiring, the grid connection paperwork and the install itself.

Add a 20 kWh battery and the combined system starts at $8,853.90 including GST. Those are starting prices for the standard configuration, and the full breakdown of what's included is on our upfront pricing page. Two-storey homes, tricky roofs, switchboard upgrades and bigger systems get quoted separately, and I'd be suspicious of anyone who quotes them without looking at your house.

If you've been reading older guides that put a 6.6 kW system at six to nine thousand dollars, they're not wrong, just out of date. Panel prices have dropped hard, and the battery discount rewrote the maths in 2025.

What pushes the price up

Since "it depends" is the honest answer, here's what it depends on, roughly in the order it comes up:

• Two storeys. Edge protection or scaffolding, more time, more people on the roof.
• Tile versus tin. Tin is quicker. Tiles are fine, but old concrete tiles crack underfoot and slow everything down.
• The switchboard. If yours still has ceramic fuses, it needs upgrading before solar can go in, and that's a separate electrical job.
• Three-phase power. Bigger houses often have it. It needs a three-phase inverter, which costs more, but it also lifts your export limit and lets you go well past 6.6 kW.
• Shade. Chimneys, trees, the neighbour's second storey. Optimisers or microinverters deal with it and add a bit per panel.
• Bigger systems. 10 kW and up is where a lot of families with an EV end up. The cost per kW drops as you go up, so the second 5 kW is cheaper than the first.

None of these are gotchas. They're just why I won't quote off a satellite photo.

What's already been taken off

This is the bit that confuses people. Every solar quote in Australia has a federal discount baked in before you see it, and most quotes don't tell you.

It's called the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. When a system is installed it earns Small-scale Technology Certificates, or STCs, based on how much power it's expected to produce until the scheme winds down in 2030. You could sell those certificates yourself. Nobody does. You assign them to the installer, who knocks their value off the price. That's why the industry can sell a 6.6 kW system for under five grand.

Two things follow from that. One, the STC discount shrinks every January as 2030 gets closer, so a quote in December is worth more than the same quote the following February. Two, if a quote doesn't say whether STCs are included, ask. It should. Ours does.

The Victorian rebate that's still running

Solar Victoria's solar panel rebate is up to $1,400 off, plus an optional interest-free loan of the same amount paid back over four years. That's on top of the STC discount, not instead of it.

The catch is eligibility, which has tightened. Right now your combined household taxable income needs to be under $150,000, the property under $3 million, you need to be the owner-occupier, and the address can't have had solar installed in the last ten years. Tick all four and a 6.6 kW system with us lands at a bit over three thousand dollars. Miss one and you pay the starting price. We confirm what you actually qualify for at the assessment rather than quoting a rebate price you might not get.

Fair warning: the income threshold and the rebate amount have both moved in the last two years. Check the Solar Victoria page for the current figures before you build a budget around them.

Batteries got roughly 30% cheaper

Since July 2025 the federal Cheaper Home Batteries Program has been discounting eligible batteries from 5 to 100 kWh by around 30% of the upfront cost. It works the same way as the panel discount, through STCs, so again it's already in the quote. The discount tapers each year, and the way it's calculated changed in May 2026, so a battery quote from last year is out of date.

That's why a 20 kWh battery upgrade sits at $4,398.90 on our upfront plan. Before this program, a battery that size was a very different conversation.

Why we only do outright purchase now

We used to offer a bill-saver plan, where someone else owned the panels and you bought the power, and a rent-to-own option. We retired both this year. Outright purchase is simpler to explain and simpler to live with: you pay once, the system is yours from day one, every rebate and every exported kilowatt-hour is yours, and if you sell the house the system goes with it as an asset rather than a contract the buyer has to take over. No lock-in years, no rent, no financier in the middle.

Is it worth it? Here's my honest maths

A 6.6 kW system in Melbourne produces somewhere around 24 kWh a day averaged across the year. More in January, a lot less in June. What that saves you depends on how much of it you use yourself, because since Victoria scrapped the minimum feed-in tariff, exporting earns cents, sometimes nothing.

A household that's home during the day and uses most of its own solar can cut its bill by well over half. A house that's empty until 6pm without a battery saves a good deal less. Add the battery and you shift the evening load onto stored solar, which is where the bigger savings live, but you've also spent more upfront. For most of our panel-only customers, the system pays for itself in a handful of years. Panels last 25. You do the rest.

What I tell people who ask me straight: if you're staying in the house more than five years, panels are a no-brainer. Batteries are a judgement call that depends on your evening usage and how much you value blackout backup.

Getting a quote you can trust

Send us four bills, one per season. Tell us if the house is empty during the day. Tell us if the switchboard looks like it was last touched in 1987. We'll come back with a number that's yours, not a headline one, and we'll tell you exactly which rebates you qualify for and which ones you don't.

"It depends" is still true. But now you know what on.