Everything was looking up for 28-year-old small business owner Matthew Summerville.
After working full-time and saving for eight years, he poured all of his money into self-funding his business, RewNewCo Solar.
After completing its third year, his fledgling company had grown to 30 staff.
He was on track for a good year, until the NSW government announced a battery rebate six months in advance, which he said wreaked havoc for his business and put him at risk of losing everything.
“We were completely blindsided by the announcement,” he said, noting that the government gave little warning about the change.
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Matthew Summerville has been lost over $3m in revenue due to the government’s “irresponsible” announcement.
The rebate will allow home and business owners to get between $1,600 and $2,400 off the upfront installation costs of a battery to accompany their solar system from November 1.
Within hours of the announcement, clients began cancelling instalments, costing him $3.6m in revenue, with his bank account taking an $450,000 hit within four weeks.
“The impact of losing that is dramatic, we are in our fourth financial year, we’ve continued to reinvest our profit into new staff, marketing, and supporting our clients,” he said.
“As a relatively new business, I don’t have millions in the bank account.”
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Mr Summerville fears it could have a bigger impact on average Australians and the solar industry.
He had forty battery instalments booked in, out of those forty clients, only four went ahead – the rest rescheduled to November.
With $150,000 worth of salaries to pay on top of other expenses, he said it put his company at huge risk of going under.
“There was no assistance for the business owners, no warning, there was a complete lack of details of the eligibility to make it worse. No communication between the government and how this will affect businesses announcing it so far in advance,” he said.
He fears it could put everyday Australians at risk of turning to “cheap and nasty” installers, and be catastrophic for the solar industry.
Mr Summerville has taken a $3.6m hit in revenue due to the timing of the announcement.
“(They) have no staff, no batteries in warehouses, they have low level overheads, who subcontract their work out, so clients have no warranty, no accountability, they’re not the businesses that are going to go under,” Mr Summerville said.
“We are being punished for running a proper company – Australians should be entitled to a good experience with solar, not the opposite.”
Billy Davis from Tru Blu Solar Co on The Central Coast, another small business owner, described it as a “kick in the guts.”
Billy Davis, Tru Blue Solar Co director has also been hit by the shock announcement.
“It’s pretty impactful, we are definitely grateful that the government is supporting a battery rebate, but they could have consulted the industry before they publicly announced it,” Mr Davis said, adding that it cost him an estimated $1m in revenue.
“I’m a small-business owner, we only turned over $3m last year, that’s about 30 per cent of my revenue,” he said.
Mr Davis urgently reached out to the government after the notice, to warn them how “irresponsible,” the announcement was, but said he got no response.
The Shadow Minister for Energy and Climate Change James Griffin called it a “classic NSW Labor stuff up.”
“The solar industry should have been front and centre of consultation before the government decided to announce the date for this program. It’s a shame they seem to have been left in the dark,” Mr Griffin said.
“They’ve ruined what should have been a positive policy for residents, businesses and the environment getting more batteries into households and lowering energy costs.”
Both business owner’s fear everyday Australians will be effected, forced to turn to “cheap and nasty” installers.
A spokesperson from the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water said, when approached by The Daily Telegraph, that the community had been consulted.
“A consultation process on the changes to the Peak Demand Reduction Scheme (PDRS) was undertaken with various industry stakeholders including community groups, electricity retailers, government agencies, manufacturers, industry associations and technology providers,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Davis said he didn’t believe the government had done an adequate job in communicating with the industry.
“Everyone … was shocked by the announcement,” Mr Davis claims.
Solar business owners were rattled by the announcement, according to Mr Davis.
“Most owners are rattled from it, they are just hoping they can stay on their feet.”
Mr Davis also added that November was already a “crazy period” for installations.
“The good business owners like Matt and I will be at capacity and it will provide an opportunity for the cheap, dodgy companies to take advantage of the rebate and advantage of customers,” Mr Davis said.
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