If you install solar, batteries or heat pumps in Australia, STCs are a line on every quote. They are also the line installers understand least, because the price moves, the traders all say different things, and the number on a rate card rarely tells the whole story.
This article explains how the STC price is set, why it sits below $40, and how to compare offers so you are comparing like with like.
The $40 ceiling
Small-scale Technology Certificates are created when you install an eligible system. Retailers and other liable entities must buy and surrender them to the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) each year to meet their obligations under the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme.
The STC Clearing House is the backstop. It lets certificate holders sell at a fixed $40 per STC (ex GST), which is why $40 is described as the ceiling. In practice the clearing house is a queue. Sales go through in order, and the wait for payment can run to many months when supply is heavy. Few businesses can carry that.
So the market price sits somewhere under $40, and the distance below it moves with supply, demand and how much certainty a buyer is offering.
Why traders pay below $40
Think of the difference as the cost of turning a registry entry into cash in your account this week.
A trader who buys your STCs:
- Waits for the registry to process the claim and validate the certificates
- Carries the risk that a claim is invalid, or an audit finds a problem later
- Holds the certificates until they are sold or surrendered to a liable entity
- Funds your payment in advance, so their own cash is tied up
Competition between traders narrows the gap. A trader that is efficient, well capitalised and careful with compliance can pay closer to the ceiling than one that is not. That is the honest meaning of a good rate: a smaller gap, passed on to you.
Spot versus forward
Two terms come up on rate cards and in conversations with account managers.
Spot is the price for certificates available now. When your claim is registered and tradeable, the spot price is what a trader will pay for immediate transfer.
Forward is a price agreed today for certificates delivered later. Forward prices usually sit a little lower, because the buyer is committing capital for longer, but they give you certainty if you are quoting jobs weeks ahead.
Most installers selling job by job deal at spot. Larger crews with predictable volume sometimes ask about forward arrangements so they can quote with a known number. If that is you, raise it with your account manager and get the terms in writing.
What “top-of-market” actually means
Every trader says it. Here is what it should mean, and what it should not.
It should mean: on the day you lodge a complete claim, the net amount you receive per certificate is at or near the best you could achieve from a reputable trader, after every fee and cost.
It should not mean: a number in large type on the front page that no one can say how they arrived at. And it is not a guarantee of being the highest in the country on every day, because nobody can verify that. We say top-of-market and publish the rate daily so you can hold us to it. You can see today’s number on the pricing page.
How to compare rate cards properly
Put two offers side by side and ask the same five questions of each.
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| What is the rate per STC? | The starting point, not the finish |
| What fees come off it? | Processing, admin, registry or subscription charges reduce the net |
| When is it paid? | Five to ten business days is common. Twenty-four hours is not |
| When is the rate locked? | At lodgement, at approval, or at payment? |
| What happens if a certificate is invalidated? | Who bears the cost? |
Fees
Some rate cards quote a high price and then deduct a per-claim processing fee, a monthly platform fee, or a percentage. Convert everything to dollars per certificate. On a 6.6 kW system creating roughly forty certificates, a $2 per STC difference is around $80 a job. A $15 admin fee on top changes the maths again.
Timing
Money has a time value, particularly for a crew buying panels and inverters on trade terms. If one trader pays at day one and another at day ten, the second needs to pay noticeably more to be better value. Our companion piece on how long STC payment should take walks through the cash-flow effect with numbers.
Rate lock
The rate should be fixed when you lodge a complete claim, not when the trader eventually gets around to processing it. If the price falls between your lodgement and their approval and the rate floats, you carry the market risk. On our rate card, the rate is locked when a complete claim is lodged.
A worked comparison
Say you are weighing two offers on a job that creates 40 STCs. These numbers are illustrative.
- Offer A: $38.90 per STC, $12 per claim admin fee, paid in seven business days, rate floats until approval.
- Offer B: $38.50 per STC, no fees, paid within 24 hours, rate locked at lodgement.
Offer A nets 40 x $38.90 = $1,556, less $12 = $1,544, a week later. Offer B nets 40 x $38.50 = $1,540, tomorrow. The headline gap is 40 cents. The net gap is $4 a job, and Offer B hands you the money six business days earlier with no price risk. Across 20 jobs a month, you are comparing $80 against a whole week of cash flow.
Why the price moves
The STC price responds to a handful of things: how many certificates are being created, how close the market is to the clearing house ceiling, expectations about the scheme’s remaining years, and how much appetite liable entities have to buy ahead of their surrender deadlines. When installation volumes surge, as they have with battery uptake, supply rises and the discount to $40 can widen.
You do not need to forecast any of this. You need a trader who tells you the price every morning, locks it when you lodge, and pays quickly so you are not exposed in between. Daily alerts help: our rate alerts go out by SMS or email each trading morning.
What to do next
- Pull your last three STC payouts and calculate the net dollars per certificate after every fee.
- Note how many days each took to land.
- Compare that against a published rate card on the same basis.
If you want to see how the numbers look on your own volume, talk to the desk. There are no fees, the rate is published, and your first claim is checked before it goes anywhere. For the full picture on how solar certificates work for installers, see our STC trading guide.