Feed in Tarriffs a HUGE Disappointment

It seems that the NSW State Government are masters at turning a good thing bad.

Yesterdays feed in tarriff announcement for solar electricty should have been a resounding yeah, but instead they added a three letter word to the whole deal and turned it into a booo.

So what is wrong with NET feed ins, well the average household system in NSW is rated at 1.5kw, which on a great sunny day only produces half of the household energy requirements and that is assuming that you have been smart and installed a solar hot water heater first. So a net tarriff only pays you $0.60 when you have surplus energy to sell- which as you can see will never happen-unless your away camping for a month somewhere nice!

And yet these stooges blow their own trumpet and tell us that you could earn up to $900 a year reduceing the payback of grid interacting solar power systems to less than 15 yrs.

I looked at my bill today, and we have a 2.5kw system installed and we wont be getting a cheque anytime soon! We may still be paying back our $28000 investment- but it feels as though we have well and truly got our moneys worth over the last 10 years. For what most people fail to think about is every dollar saved in outgoings is about $2.50 less that has to be earned!

So without a gross feed in tarriff and a decent rebate installing solar energy will start to be pushed further down the household wishlist- however I still think its a much more tangible option than the stock market investment wise.

follows is the text from todays Media Release- have a look at the SMH article hyperlinked above too.


Solar plan is road block to climate solutions

The battle within Nathan Rees’ cabinet over solar feed-in tariffs has been won by the coal faction, according to Greens Councillor Amanda Findley.
Commenting on the decision to opt for a ‘net’ feed-in tariff that does not reward renewable energy that is used by households, Clr Findley said: "Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt has been run over by her colleagues.
"Finance Minister Joe Tripodi and his ally Energy Minister Ian Macdonald won the day for an ineffective scheme that will become an excuse for no further action to stimulate household renewable energy generation.
"The ‘brown’ faction in cabinet has robbed potential investors of the certainty of payment streams that is needed to secure financing for solar panels.
"Only the ACT has got it right with a ‘gross’ tariff that pays the bonus on all the energy generated.
"NSW has lost the opportunity to build on this state’s world leadership in solar research.
"Ian Macdonald’s net tariff will have almost no impact on jobs growth, cutting greenhouse gas emissions or building an export industry.
"Ministers Tebbutt and Macdonald claim this is the most generous scheme of all the states.
"This is simply spin to disguise the damage they have done by opting for an ineffective net tariff that will discriminate against stay-at-home mums, older people and the self-employed who work from their homes.
" I have invested $28000 on a 2.5 kilowatt system that is larger than the average 1.5 kilowatt system that has been taken up under the Federal Gov rebate scheme, under Rees scheme I will not see an extra cent returned on my bill and neither will any one else.
"The figure of up to $900 is a carrot that will only be received by those who install a system on an unoccupied holiday home or the like.
"By taking away the income certainty, a net tariff locks in a low level of uptake.
"This might suit those in cabinet who are hostile to renewable energy. It might help the coal industry by damaging a competitor. However it is bad news for NSW.
"The Greens will be seeking to amend the legislation to create an effective, gross feed-in tariff," Cl Findley said.