The rule is short and unforgiving. Certificates for rooftop solar, batteries and hot water systems are created in the REC Registry, and the Clean Energy Regulator expects that to happen within 12 months of the installation date. This page covers the three ways the question tends to be asked: what the deadline is, why a claim “failed” on it, and whether anything can be claimed after it.
What the 12 month deadline is
Participants, or the registered agent they have assigned their rights to, can create STCs for up to 12 months after a small-scale system is installed. The Regulator validates each created certificate, and the clock keeps running while a claim sits in your drawer, in a trader’s queue or in a failed state.
Two points make it bite harder than it sounds:
- The date is the installation date, not the date the customer signed, the date the network approved or the date the paperwork was finished.
- Re-creation counts as a new attempt. If a claim is rejected and you need to fix and recreate it, the installation still has to be inside the 12 months.
Why STCs “fail” on the deadline
Most deadline failures are not installers sitting on a job for a year. They are slow-burn problems:
- A claim failed validation (a serial number issue, a missing photo, an owner detail mismatch), the installer meant to fix it, and the weeks went by.
- A job was waiting on an assignment form that the customer never returned.
- A battery was installed first and the solar paperwork came later, so the batch was held back.
- The installer’s accreditation or the product listing needed sorting out before the claim could go in.
Can you claim STCs after 12 months?
Treat it as no. The Regulator’s published guidance does not give an open-ended extension, and an installer who assumes one will find out the hard way. If you are in a genuine edge case, such as a system that was held up by something outside your control, ask the Regulator directly and keep the correspondence. Do not rely on a trader, an agent or a forum post to tell you the window can be waived.
The commercial reality is that a missed window usually means the customer has already received their discount and you cannot recover the certificates that paid for it.
Working the deadline into your process
- Put an internal cut-off at 90 days after installation and escalate anything still open.
- Chase assignment forms at install, not afterwards. See what an assignment form must include.
- Fix failed claims the same week. The rejection reasons list shows what usually causes them.
- Do not leave the installation date to memory. Record it on the job sheet.
From the desk: the dangerous jobs are the ones that look fine in your system but never got lodged. Once a month, pull a list of every installation without a created certificate against it.
What this means for installers
The 12 months is a hard business constraint, not a technicality. Lodge early and the rest of the process, including fixes, has room to breathe. A trader with a compliance desk that pre-checks claims catches errors while there is still time to correct them, which is a large part of why lodging through a trader works. See how it works and pricing. Our guide to the audit process covers what happens after the certificates are created.