Storm rains on solar sale tariff

Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday 24/6/2009 Page: 3

NSW has finally put a price on sunshine, with the State Government announcing householders with solar panels will receive payments from feeding electricity back into the energy grid.

The announcement, which was delayed by five months and greeted with a blizzard of criticism from industry and green groups yesterday, is nonetheless expected to provide a modest boost to the number of people having solar panels installed. People with panels will be paid 60 cents for each kW hour of energy they don't use - over three times the current market price - starting on January 1.

In theory it would be possible to earn a few dollars a day, up to $1200 a year, by pumping solar energy back into the power grid, which is still mainly driven by coal-fired power. But most households use more energy than a typical, small rooftop system can provide and are likely to see little return from the tariff unless they drastically reduce their power use, or spend more on a bigger panel system.

The Government said up to 200,000 homes would benefit from the tariff in the next decade, and would generate $50 million investment in the solar industry each year. "This is a significant boost for renewable energy in NSW and has the potential to generate an additional 500 green jobs," the Environment Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, said. Yet the "net" tariff is much the weaker of the two main options considered by the Government.

Business and green groups had been campaigning for a "gross" tariff, under which people would be paid a premium rate for all the solar energy they produce. The ACT has a gross tariff, while other mainland states are introducing net tariffs similar to the NSW plan.

The State Opposition said yesterday it would replace the net scheme with a more generous gross scheme if elected. "This is a second-rate model that will not deliver any assured payback for people installing solar energy," the shadow environment minister, Catherine Cusack, said. The Government scheme applies only to systems of 10 kWs or less, meaning large companies with the room and resources to set up large panel arrays cannot participate.

The tariff is likely to benefit people who do not use power in the daytime and potentially discriminates against retirees and stay-at-home mothers. It was delayed for six months while the Environment and Energy departments fought over which model to adopt.