From the BBE website:
From one of our members:
I did some investigation of the RECs relating to solar power through the office of the renewable energy regulator (www.orer.gov.au) regarding the value of RECs that are we sign over to Beyond Building see http://www.orer.gov.au/publications/photovoltaic.html . They work out being about 17 recs for our area (zone 4) for a 1 kw system which are worth about $36 to $40 each – total of about $680 (Calc – 1 kw x 1.185 (zone factor) x 15 (deeming period – 15 years is the most favourable) = 17.775 – round down to 17 Recs) – I spoke to a person call Matt Power who was very helpful 0262741196 of the renewable energy regulator.
There is also a site that monitors the value of RECs on the open market http://www.afma.com.au/scripts/nc.dll?AFMAV6.196862:STANDARD:394747943:pc=L6C1S2S13 and here for prices http://www.afma.com.au/scripts/nc.dll?AFMAV6.196862:STANDARD:394747943:pc=L6C1S2S132 . You will see this is about $44 to $57 per REC. This is higher because it covers the costs of mobs like beyond Energy getting together large quantities of RECs, which they then trade to power companies like Origin Energy. No one wants to by small lots of RECs. There are businesses out there who act as brokers. RECs are also created from solar hot water systems and solar hot water heat pumps. Matt Power was saying there is a fair bit of unconscionable behaviour out there were people are not aware of the value of RECs and who sign them over to their hot water our solar PV service providers without looking to closely at their value. It is only a few dollars to the consumer, but for retailers they add up. There are about 50,000 new solar hot water systems being sold a year at the moment. Interesting stuff.