The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission ICRC has released their activity summary of the Electricity Feed-in Scheme.
For mine the big announcement is:
Total installed capacity of renewable generators at 31 December 2012 was 30,149 kilowatts, compared with 28,628 kilowatts at the end of the September 2012 quarter
With more applications rolling in it looks like the industry [...]

The Liberals have taken to pre-announcing their estimates questions. Which indicates they’re not that interested in the answers.
Yesterday they were trying to present the feed in tariff scheme (homeowners paid over the odds to make electricity on their roofs with solar panels by the rest of the non-homeowning community) as “a second carbon tax”.
ACT Opposition [...]

I’ve read Graham Downie’s excellent arcticle in the Canberra Times regarding the almost useless and expensive solar power system we Canberran’s have been stuck with.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/high-price-paid-for-low-solar-return-20120422-1xfca.html
At peak radiation times, not even 1% of power is generated by solar.  And during peak demands, on cold nights, yes Sherlock, it’s 0%, not doubt due to the slackness of [...]

This might be stating the obvious but the ACT Labor Government’s solar plan is receiving plenty of interest from the renewable energy industry, as Simon Corbell announced yesterday. Forty nine separate prequalification proposals were received, showing that the nation’s capital is keen to get started on a large scale solar facility.
“This level of interest [...]

Simon Corbell is celebrating getting the nod from the Legislative Assembly to ramp up solar power generation in Canberra.
Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Simon Corbell, has today welcomed in-principal support from the ACT Legislative Assembly, for legislation which will allow large-scale solar facilities to be rolled out across the ACT.
“The Government’s legislation proposes [...]

Hi all,
Inspected a rental property recently and became aware during the inspection that the property had a solar panel.
Although the lessor stated that he had been disappointed overall with the investment (something about failing to get the promised amount of kWs), he said that having them still resulted in a ~30% reduction in electricity bills.
I’m [...]

The Liberals’ Zed Seselja is very excited by internal correspondence from ACT Treasury stating the bleeding obvious, that rooftop solar is a way to enrich land owners at the expense of non-land owners.
An email obtained by the Canberra Liberals through freedom of information shows the public servant calculates that by purchasing a 1.7 kW solar [...]

The Liberals’ Alistair Coe has a bee in his bonnet over delays in solar panel installation.
“I’ve been contacted by constituents who have to wait until February 2012 for ACTPLA’s approval of their panels,” Member for Ginninderra Alistair Coe said today.
“After ACT Labor cut the scheme early, people are now being forced to wait for the [...]

The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission has published their latest summary of generation under the troubled feed-in tariff scheme.
• During the June 2011 quarter, 1,653 new connections of renewable generators were made to the distribution network, compared with 868 made during the previous quarter.
• In total, 6,057 renewable generators were connected to the distribution network [...]

To All Solar Free Clients
Thank you for been part of the Solar Free journey, while we continue to grow our brand. Your business is very much appreciated and while some of you are still clients of Solar Free, a very few number of our clients have experienced delays and left us due to various reasons [...]

EnviroFriendly have put out a media release saying solar panel buyers are going to be better off without the feed in tariff after all:
Effective midnight Wednesday, the ACT Government announced the closing of the ACT Solar Feed In Tariff. The demise of the program has been described as a disaster by everyone involved in the [...]

The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury has responded to this morning’s shock ending of the solar feed in tariff scheme
The unexpected overnight re-closure of the feed in tariff scheme has highlighted the need to remove the cap on the scheme according to ACT Greens Energy spokesperson Shane Rattenbury.
“No-one anticipated this cap would be reached in just [...]

At midnight while most of you slept Katy Gallagher announced that the re-opened feed in tariff scheme for rooftop solar panels had again exceeded the cap and was being shut down after just two days.
And if you missed the cutoff there’s no grandfathering like last time, even with a signed contract:
“The Government warned against re-opening [...]

The ACT Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate have announced the formal re-opening of the solar feed-in tariff scheme after the Liberals and Greens over ruled Labor in the Assembly.
Further to amendments recently passed in the Legislative Assembly, a revised ACT electricity Feed-in
Tariff will re-open on 11 July 2011, said David Papps, Director-General of the [...]

With little fanfare the Chief Minister’s website has pushed out the first tranche of Cabinet Outcomes, this one for June.
The ones that appear to be actual decisions rather than studies and consultations which we did not previously know about are:
– Direct Sale of Land to ALDI Foods Pty Ltd – Cabinet agreed to the direct [...]

The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury is celebrating opening the “medium scale” feed in tariff for solar panels to installations down to 0 kW (so all of them).
The Liberals were needed to support it and Zed Seselja has a circuitous explanation.
The upshot is new installs will be able to get 30c per kW on power they generate.

Shane Rattenbury’s people have sent in a picture he took this morning of the solar industry protest rally from the tradesman’s side of the Legislative Assembly.

Last week the solar industry announced they would be protesting outside the Legislative Assembly this morning at 8am against the capping of the feed-in tariff which has effectively shut them down.
So your correspondent got out of bed early on the darkest day of the year and made his way down to the Assembly to take [...]

[ 21 June, 2011; 8:00 am to 9:00 am. ] Numerous groups are emailing in a media release calling for protest on Tuesday (the winter solstice geddit?) to get Canberra’s retail solar industry kickstarted again after Simon Corbell took an axe to it on 1 June:

ACT households are no longer able to access ANY incentives to encourage them to install roof top solar power.

The immediate [...]

The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury has proposed an extension of sorts for those who missed out on the solar feed-in tariff scheme gold rush.
“I am proposing the feed-in tariff legislation is changed so that systems of 0-200kW can receive the medium scale tariff rate.
“This will effectively do two things: reduce the tariff for micro generators to [...]

The Greens’ Shane Rattenbury is saying a few words over the body of the solar industry after Simon Corbell’s dramatic decision over night to close the feed-in tariff scheme:
“The failure has been the artificial brick wall created by the Government, and supported by the Liberal party, by capping the small scale solar scheme at 15 [...]

Simon Corbell has not published an announcement yet, but despite telling the public yesterday that it would be months until the solar feed-in tariff scheme was fully subscribed, the scheme has now been closed in the face of rampaging demand.
If you’ve already paid a deposit, or entered into a formal arrangement for installation, then you’re [...]

Greens Energy spokesperson Shane Rattenbury is voicing his worries that the solar feed-in tariff is about to become over-subscribed leading to doom and destruction:
“Figures revealed in Estimates hearings show that within weeks Canberrans may no longer be able to obtain the Feed in Tariff,” said Shane Rattenbury.
“The Minister urgently needs to reveal how the [...]

Energy Minister Simon Corbell has proudly unveiled a 30kW solar roof farm in Hume leased by Energy Matters.
He’s hoping other roofs across Canberra can be similarly used:
“There are a number of large buildings and open space across the Territory which could be suitable for a solar installation of this size. It is pleasing to see [...]

The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission has released its ACT Electricity Feed-in Scheme Activity Summary: 1 March 2009 to 31 March 2011 .
March 2011 connection were up to 868 from 485 in the December quarter!
That’s despite the tradie drought of January and February.
And it’s going to get even bigger, with 1,552 applications received in the [...]

Simon Corbell has announced that the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission has advised him the solar feed-in tariff scheme should drop payments from 45.7c per kilowatt hour down to 39c.
“This advice from the ICRC Senior Commissioner to change the price is based on the ICRC’s assessment of increased competition in the Australian market, and the [...]

I have been noticing the Solar Free ads re getting 1.5kWh 7 panels for around $3k. 
They say you get around $1000 per year back through the rebates – so it would pay for itself in three years. 
Are there any catches?  I looked at our last quarter bill and we used around 1,300kWh so [...]

Thus far we have had a negative experience regarding the installation and implementation of our solar panels. All the initial dealings with the company were courteous and professional, and the workers who installed the panels were professional. Problems arose when,
1. Our paperwork was not submitted to ActewAGL until about ten days after the panels were [...]

Liberal Leader Zed Seselja is pointing out that the changes under way to the feed-in-tariff scheme (whereby people who own properties get paid outrageous prices for solar power generated on their roofs at the expense of everyone else) will mean large businesses can now effectively gouge the less well off.
“Canberra families will be paying more [...]

The Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission has released its activity summary on the Electricity Feed-in Scheme for feed-in from renewable energy generators to the electricity network.
So basically the home owners getting paid by non home-owners to get solar panels on their roofs.
The summary lists the Suburbs with the greatest number of connections to the scheme:
– [...]

The Canberra Times informs us that the cost of the feed-in tariff for solar electricity (whereby the wealthy who can put solar panels on the roofs of houses they own get paid vastly inflated amounts of money for the power they make) is going to bump an extra $225 a year onto everyone else’s electricity [...]

Simon Corbell has looked across the solar panels adorning the rooves of Canberra’s well to do and found it pleasing.
So now he’s expanding the feed in tariff scheme:
The Government has agreed to establish an expanded feed-in tariff scheme with the following elements;
– An overall scheme cap of 240 MW of generating capacity;
– Large scale [...]