Solar power surge in south-east Queensland

www.abc.net.au
Tue, 8 Sep 09

Energex says Queenslanders should be realistic about energy savings when purchasing solar panels for the home. It follows complaints from consumers their electricity bills did not change or in some cases increased after installing the panels. Under the Queensland Government's feed-in tariff scheme, extra power generated by solar panels is taken off an electricity bill. Energex spokesman Mike Swanston says solar panels will save electricity but they will not cut a bill in half.

"Generally a small system will reduce a household electricity bill by about $100 a quarter," Mr Swanston said. "That's with everything else being held steady. "When we see the amount of power that gets used in households through plasma TV and things unfortunately some people aren't seeing the benefits of solar they had hoped to see but it really does make a difference if you use them in your home intelligently."

Mr Swanston says there has been a big surge in people buying solar panels. "We have seen an incredible increase in the solar electricity going into homes in the south-east Queensland," he said. "In fact only 12 months ago we received around 200 connection requests in a month but last month we topped 2,000 and we are expecting that will continue to increase."

A Brisbane businessman who specialises in energy saving devices is warning consumers to be very careful about companies over-stating the dollar savings of solar panels. Bryan Springer says anyone suggesting a solar panel can dramatically reduce a quarterly electricity bill should not be trusted.

Mr Springer says power bills will go down but not by half. He says new companies with little or no expertise in energy saving are trying to cash in on the government's push to go solar. "You recall what happened with water tanks companies are buying directly in from China and selling to the public: The public have a problem and go back to the company and the company is not there," Mr Springer said.