Follow our guide and make a submission to get Solar Our Schools in the next Federal Budget.

The Australian Treasury is now accepting public submissions to advise the make up of the next Federal Government budget in May. This is our chance to show how much support there is across Australia for Solar Our Schools. The more people who make a submission, the louder our message is.

You can make a submission in 3 easy steps.

1. Download our guide here.

2. Make your submission through the government's public online submission portal here.

3. Please notify us that you have made a submission - email gavin@ap4ca.org

 Pre-Budget Submissions close on 29 January 2021. 

Background: In September 2020 Australian Parents for Climate Action delivered the Solar Our Schools open letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison, signed by more than 11,000 Australian parents, asking him to fund fund solar and batteries for every school and early childhood centre in Australia as part of the October COVID-19 recovery budget.

But PM Scott Morrison failed to respond to the 11,000 parents who signed the Solar Our Schools open letter; and the Federal Government failed to invest in renewable energy in the October COVID-19 recovery budget.

Australian Parents for Climate Action are now asking our supporters to formally submit to the Treasury to request funding for Solar Our Schools in the next federal budget.

Solar Our Schools is a shovel-ready initiative that will:

- Create at least 6,870 renewable energy jobs in all regions of Australia.

- Slash school energy bills which frees up more funds for learning resources and teaching wages, saving large schools $114,000 in energy bills per year and small schools $12,700 per year  (Beyond Zero Emissions).

- Save millions of tonnes of carbon emissions per year.

By combining solar and batteries, Solar Our Schools also allows schools and early childhood centres to act as Virtual Power Plants, giving communities access to a local, de-centralised power source; providing resilience in the face of climate emergencies like extreme weather events. These virtual power plants would also help to stabilise our whole electricity grid.

If every school and early learning centre in Australia got solar and batteries, the battery systems alone would store enough power to replace the power generation provided by the Liddell coal-powered electricity station in NSW.