Green power market grows

Port Macquarie News
Wednesday 28/11/2007 Page: 14

ANDY Colvin discovered green energy 30 years ago when he moved to Elands, 80km south-west of Port Macquarie, and found his house sat 2km from the electricity grid. Faced with a $20,000 bill to get hooked up to the power system, he chose to buy a secondhand wind turbine for $1500 and put it on his property. It survived for 12 years until a storm damage forced him to change to solar panels. Now the 61-year-old grandfather battles to get a day off from installing hydro, wind and solar power-generating equipment.

He expects demand to rise with the new Labor government after a sharp increase in trade for the past two years. "It's a mushrooming effect, that's the only way I can explain it," the solar engineer said. More people, such as local David Robertson, have cashed in on the former coalition government's $8000 rebate to pay for solar power. He also received $1500 from the Australian Government for installing 16 solar panels, which almost halved the cost of putting in $23,000 worth of panels.

Mr Robertson calculates he saves $1.50 a day, but he did not do it for financial reasons. He reckons it will take 15 years to get his money back. "I believe in saving the world one step at a time," the information technology worker said. Mr Colvin said people could use back-up generators. Or use batteries, which are 40 times more powerful than a car battery, as a backup system when there are three or four cloudy days in a row.