1 April 2011

Feed-in tarriff to stay unchanged

| johnboy
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Minister for Energy Simon Corbell has announced that despite two weeks ago taking on board the recommendation of the ICRC, that the feed-in tarriff for solar power should fall, he’s going to keep it where it is:

Simon Corbell, has today announced that the premium rate for the micro-generation category of the ACT feed-in tariff scheme will remain unchanged at 45.7c per kilowatt hour, providing certainty and stability for the renewable energy industry and consumers.

Mr Corbell also announced that the new medium generator category payment percentage would remain set at 75% of the micro-generator category rate, a price of 34.27 c per kilowatt hour.

“In making these decisions I am mindful of the undertaking I made last year that as far as practicable, the Micro Premium announced then would remain for a 2 year period. I did this to establish certainty for investors and for industry players. This decision to leave the premium rate unchanged honours that commitment” he said.

Notwithstanding the advice received from the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission recommending a decrease in the Premium, I have taken into account the possibility of a reduction in the strength of the Australian dollar internationally and the impact that would have on the price of solar technology.”

“The Government has released a community guide to assist groups in the ACT to invest in renewable
energy technology,” Mr Corbell added.

“Canberrans previously ineligible as individuals can now form a group and take part in the scheme, and
the guide will assist them in this process,” Mr Corbell said.

Simon wants Canebrra to be hailed as the solar capital regardless of the cost.

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Another pointless, wasteful, expensive, achieve nothing program that only benefits rich upper middle class people with nothing better to do with $30000 than contribute to ripping off ordinary electricity customers. The effect this will have on green house etc is so minuscule you could not measure it with an electron microscope. We’d be better off just taking the cash spent and burning it in a coal power station to make electricity. There are so many effective programs, but, our government and green wankers inist on foisting such populist tosh onto us cash poor rubes.

Gungahlin Al said :

They are only needed in order to counter the ‘invisible’ subsidy that dirty energy production gets through not having to compensate for the pollution they cause. “Level playing fields’ go both ways…

And the way to fix it is to remove ALL the subsidies, not to keep adding new ones.

Good news certainly, but I’m sure the 15 megawatt cap will be filling quickly.

GottaLoveCanberra5:04 pm 01 Apr 11

Oh….thank……Christ.

Hopefully the phone calls will die off too!

Just ordered mine, they reckon they can put it up in July. Now if Simon Corbell goes back on his word, I will go absolutely nuts.

Brilliant! I was expecting it to drop to 39c. I’m getting quotes at the moment for a system so this is great news.

Gungahlin Al said :

alaninoz said :

If the industry is so dependent on subsidies for its existence, it shows that the industry isn’t viable.

They are only needed in order to counter the ‘invisible’ subsidy that dirty energy production gets through not having to compensate for the pollution they cause. “Level playing fields’ go both ways…

How about some levelling so that renters don’t have to subsidise home owners and rich businesses for this inefficient wankfest?

Gungahlin Al2:33 pm 01 Apr 11

alaninoz said :

If the industry is so dependent on subsidies for its existence, it shows that the industry isn’t viable.

They are only needed in order to counter the ‘invisible’ subsidy that dirty energy production gets through not having to compensate for the pollution they cause. “Level playing fields’ go both ways…

shadow boxer2:25 pm 01 Apr 11

Gungahlin Al said :

This is very good news for the many hundreds of households waiting for their panels to be installed in the rush up to 1 July when the Federal Government’s RECS bonus gets slashed. All the solar panel installers around the nation are in overdrive now, and to add to the pressure here in ACT by cutting the FIT from 1 July would have really cracked it.

It’s also very good for the dozens of Gungahlin homes to be fitted out over the coming months under GCC’s Power In Numbers discount initiative.

Simon says he has done this to try to restore some certainty to the market (and keep his promise to fix it for 2 years) and for this he should be commended.

The renewable energy and energy efficiency industries have been turned inside out time and again by various governments, chief among them being the ALP Federal and NSW Governments. First with ill-considered schemes then with even more ill-considered withdrawals of said schemes.

The industries need time to stabilise and then to shake out the shonkies. They can’t establish as the way of the future (which they indeed are) while being subjected to artificial boom/bust cycles of government subsidies and financial penalties for recalcitrants and the poor.

Fixed the last sentence for you Al 😉

If the industry is so dependent on subsidies for its existence, it shows that the industry isn’t viable.

Gungahlin Al10:52 am 01 Apr 11

This is very good news for the many hundreds of households waiting for their panels to be installed in the rush up to 1 July when the Federal Government’s RECS bonus gets slashed. All the solar panel installers around the nation are in overdrive now, and to add to the pressure here in ACT by cutting the FIT from 1 July would have really cracked it.

It’s also very good for the dozens of Gungahlin homes to be fitted out over the coming months under GCC’s Power In Numbers discount initiative.

Simon says he has done this to try to restore some certainty to the market (and keep his promise to fix it for 2 years) and for this he should be commended.

The renewable energy and energy efficiency industries have been turned inside out time and again by various governments, chief among them being the ALP Federal and NSW Governments. First with ill-considered schemes then with even more ill-considered withdrawals of said schemes.

The industries need time to stabilise and then to shake out the shonkies. They can’t establish as the way of the future (which they indeed are) while being subjected to artificial boom/bust cycles and erosion of public confidence.

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