Guidelines, start date for ACT sustainable household scheme revealed

Its first participants will take part in a pilot program before the end of the month.

The territory government has also unveiled the guidelines for people to sign up to the $150 million scheme.

The pilot program will be made available to a small group of Canberrans and installers before the scheme is widened to all eligible participants later this year.

Homeowners will need to be invited to take part in the pilot, and must have already completed an Actsmart workshop on how to make their house more sustainable.

The sustainable household scheme will involved the government providing interest-free loans of between $2000 and $15,000 for Canberrans to purchase products such as solar panels and battery storage systems to make their home energy-efficient.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the scheme had attracted a large level of interest, with more than 5000 households and 44 suppliers registering to take part.

"The government is in the final stages of the procurement process to engage a loan provider," Mr Barr said.

"The pilot will allow the government to test and refine the system with a small group of Canberrans, suppliers and installers before it opens to all eligible households and individuals in the coming months.

"The scheme is a key component of the government's strategy to tackle climate change while supporting households to reduce their power bills and growing jobs in the renewable energy industry."

Guidelines for the scheme reveal it will be rolled out in three phases.

Phase one will focus on households taking out loans for solar panels, battery storage, electric-vehicle charging systems, hot-water heat pumps, electric heating or cooling systems and replacing gas stoves with electric models.

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The next phase will include loans for new and used electric vehicles, with both grey imports and privately sold cars included.

The third and final phase will see the scheme expand to include not-for-profit community organisations.

The new guidelines confirm that people looking to take part in the scheme can use the interest-free loans to help purchase multiple products, but only up to the $15,000 limit.

Households will be limited to one loan for category A products, which will include solar panels, battery systems and electric-vehicle charging systems; one loan for category B products, made up of all other remaining products excluding solar cars; and one loan from category C products, which takes in electric cars.

Those looking to use the scheme to help purchase an electric vehicle will need to have an ACT driver's licence.

All applicants will need to satisfy credit criteria before the loans from the government are made. Repayments will only start once the system has been installed.

For products to be installed in a home, the unimproved value of the product must be below $750,000 for freestanding houses.

Multi-storey apartments must have an unimproved value of less than $200,000 to be eligible.

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