Welcome to Insulation Rebates
UPDATE: Changes to Government Environmental Programs
Significant changes have recently been announced for a swathe of the Government's Environment programs in response to safety and performance concerns. The changes affect the Insulation and Hot Water rebates and also the Home Sustainability Assessments and Green Loans program. Read on to find out more...
On 19 February 2010, Peter Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts announced wide-spread changes to a raft of environmental funding schemes. The changes address safety concerns related to the installation of insulation in Australian homes as well as improving performance and boosting availability of other schemes, such as the free Home Sustainability Assessments.
Renewable Energy Bonus
A new household Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme has been designed to replace the Home Insulation Program and the Solar Hot Water Rebate. These changes are designed to give householder's more control over the insulation or hot water installers and a rebate of up to $1000 can be claimed by the householder through the Medicare system.
Householders can no longer have insulation installed under the old Home Insulation Program, but the new Renewable Energy Bonus is expected to come into operation by 1 June 2010. The government remains committed to providing insulation for up to 1.9 million homes, which includes those undertaken under the old Home Insulation Program, through the new Renewable Energy Bonus scheme by 2011.
GreenLoans Program
The GreenLoans program will also undergo comprehensive changes in an effort to deliver more of the popular Home Sustainability Assessments, while ensuring the ongoing quality of assessments.
Up to 600 000 more households will be able to access a free Home Sustainability Assessment. To provide funding for more Home Sustainability Assessments, the Government will be phasing out the less popular GreenLoans component of the program as of 22 March 2010. The number of assessors will also be increased to 5000 across Australia to achieve more wide-spread coverage, particularly in currently unserviced areas. The number of assessments per week will be capped at 15 000 to maintain high quality assessments.
These alterations to the program will be in effect until the end of 2010.