Solar certificates are extending to 1 MW. The install date decides whether you get them.
The Clean Energy Regulator announced on 5 August 2026 that solar between 100 kW and 1 MW will be able to create small-scale technology certificates, intended for systems installed from 1 October 2026. That moves mid-scale commercial solar from an annual certificate income stream to an upfront point-of-sale discount. It is also subject to regulations being in place, which is the part that should govern how you sign a contract.
Reviewed by the Mission Green commercial team · Updated August 2026
What the Clean Energy
Regulator actually said.
One announcement, three conditions, and a date that does the work.
On 5 August 2026 the Clean Energy Regulator published that the Australian Government will expand eligibility for solar PV under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Systems with a total onsite capacity between 100 kW and 1 MW will be able to create small-scale technology certificates.
The CER states the change is intended to apply to mid-scale solar installed from 1 October 2026, and that it is subject to regulations being in place. Both of those qualifiers are the CER's, not ours, and both matter more than the headline.
Today the line sits at 100 kW. A system is small-scale only if its capacity is 100 kW or less and its total annual electricity output is under 250 MWh. Miss either test and it is a large-scale generation unit instead. That is the regime this change is lifting a large band of commercial solar out of.
Upfront discount versus
an annual income stream.
The two certificate schemes do not just pay differently. They change who carries the risk.
Paid once, up front
STCs are deemed for the years ahead and assigned to your installer, who applies them as a discount on the invoice. You never handle a certificate. The money arrives as a lower price on day one.
Paid yearly, on generation
LGCs are created against metered generation, one per megawatt hour, year after year. You must be accredited as a power station and you carry the metering, compliance and price risk yourself.
Capital cost, not total value
The LGC path can be worth more over a system's life. It just does not help the number your board is looking at, which is what you pay on the day.
This is why the 100 kW line has shaped so much Australian commercial solar. A business that wanted a 150 kW array and did not want to become a registered power station would routinely be quoted a 99 kW system instead — sized to a certificate boundary rather than to its own consumption.
If the regulations land as announced, that distortion goes away for everything up to 1 MW. You size to the load and the roof, and the certificates follow.
The regulations
were not made when this was announced.
This is the part a salesperson has every incentive to skip.
An announcement is not a regulation. The CER's own wording is that the change is intended to apply from 1 October 2026 and is subject to regulations being in place. Until those regulations are made, nothing is claimable.
That creates a specific commercial risk between now and then. If you sign a contract whose price assumes STCs on a 300 kW system, and the regulations are delayed or land with different boundaries, the discount you were quoted may not exist when the system is installed. The gap does not fall on the retailer. It falls on whoever agreed to the price.
There is also a timing trap in the other direction. Eligibility is expected to attach to when a system is installed, not when it is ordered, quoted or paid for. Mid-scale commercial solar routinely takes months between contract and commissioning, so a system contracted in September and commissioned in November is on a different side of the line from one commissioned in September.
So what should
your business actually do?
Short version.
If you were about to install 90-100 kW to stay under the line, stop and re-size. The constraint that pushed you there is scheduled to lift. Size the system to your actual consumption profile instead, then check what certificates it attracts.
If your system is already over 100 kW and you were resigned to the LGC path, the arithmetic may now favour waiting for a post-1-October installation. Model both. The upfront discount and the annual income stream are not interchangeable, and which one suits you depends on whether your constraint is capital or return.
If you are under 100 kW, nothing here changes for you. You already create STCs, and this announcement does not alter the small-scale rules you are using. What it does change is the market: a lot of mid-scale demand may arrive in October, and installer availability is finite.
In every case the honest position today is that the mechanism is announced and the regulations are not yet made. Plan around the date. Do not sign a price that depends on it without saying so in the contract.
Solar certificates to 1 MW:
your questions, answered.
Intended for systems installed from 1 October 2026. The Clean Energy Regulator announced the expansion on 5 August 2026 and states it is subject to regulations being in place. Until those regulations are made, the existing 100 kW boundary applies.
A solar system is small-scale only if it has a capacity of 100 kW or less and a total annual electricity output of less than 250 MWh. It must also use panels and an inverter on the Clean Energy Council approved product lists and meet the relevant Australian and New Zealand standards. Fail either the capacity or the output test and it is treated as a large-scale system.
STCs are deemed for future years and are almost always assigned to the installer, who passes them through as an upfront discount on the invoice. LGCs are created one per megawatt hour of metered generation, year after year, and require accreditation as a power station. STCs reduce what you pay on day one; LGCs are an ongoing income stream you have to administer.
No. This announcement is about solar PV eligibility under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Battery support runs through the separate Cheaper Home Batteries Program, which has its own capacity range and its own tiered certificate factor.
That depends on when it is installed and on whether the regulations are in place by then, and neither of those is certain today. Eligibility is expected to attach to installation rather than to the contract date. If a quote already prices in the discount, get the certificate assumption written down as a separate line and get it in writing who carries the shortfall if the regulations are not made in time.
Only after modelling it. Waiting has a real cost — months of avoided electricity you do not avoid, and an install queue that may be considerably busier in October. Compare that against the certificate value on your specific system size. For a system just over 100 kW the answer is often yes; for one at 700 kW with a long lead time anyway, the date may look after itself.
Where these figures come from.
Two primary sources, both Clean Energy Regulator. Where the CER has not published a figure, this page does not carry one.