This scheme looks much better. If my (brief) reading of the bill is correct, then it is different for three reasons:

(1) It is not limited to just one technology like solar PV.

(2) There is not a cap on the amount of electricity generated.

(3) It is not limited to households.

For these reasons it may actually lead to significant greenhouse gas reductions.

Greens MPs have themselves noted this as an issue in their response to the Budget, with Senator Milne being quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying,

“What family on less than $100,000 will spend $20,000 on solar panels?”

The first thing to note is that the means-testing of the rebate is, as I understand it (correct me if I’m wrong), going to be directed at whoever’s name is on the purchase documents for the thing, rather than to 22 Smith St, or wherever. So families could try a similar dodge as was used with the “first home owner’s grant” - “Oh yes our three year old son has bought his first home…” However, if that loophole is closed, what we’re left with is that according to the tax office, something like 40% of households, but only 5% of individuals, earn over $100,000.

Even if the rebate were means-tested by household, the household/individual income distinction is important because I would suggest that a household where we have, say, one parent on $60,000, another on $30,000, a teenaged kid earning $10,000, and an infant earning nothing, though their total income is $100,000, they’re less likely to put that towards any single big purchase than a family whose sole earner is earning $70,000. Several incomes adding up to more than $100,000 are less likely to put in solar panels than one income adding up to less than $100,000.

If that is true, then combined with Senator Milne’s comment we find that only 5% of individuals are going to have enough money to put up solar panels. I would submit that 5% of Australian individuals having renewable energy is not very ambitious.

The most recent GreenPower report, tells us that by the end of 2007 we had about 696,000 households and 44,000 businesses who’d signed up for GreenPower. This was a rise of 250,000 on 2006. With about 7.8 million households in the country, we can say that about 9% of people have signed up for it - though it varies by state, a high of 13.3% in Victoria and a low of 0.9% in WA. Now, consider that GreenPower is a scheme which is poorly-advertised, and where people have to take the initiative to ask their retailer to charge them about a third more for electricity. Yet 9% of the country have signed up for it, a third of them just in 2007.

To me this says that Australians are increasingly conscious of climate and energy issues, and want to do something even if it’ll cost them more. So the will is there, what’s lacking is simply the means.

A comparison of PV installation with other big purchases shows this common sense observation. Imagine if university courses had to be paid in full upfront - all three or four years - how many would go to university? Imagine if there were no mortgages, and all houses had to be paid for in cash - how many would buy homes? Imagine if there were no car loans, how many would buy cars? And so on. Being able to spread the cost over years makes big things affordable. Not being able to makes them unaffordable. And in general, we cannot yet spread the cost of home grid-connected renewable energy generators over years.

As Senator Milne says, households - or, I add, individuals - on less than $100,000 are unlikely to spend $20,000 on PV. We need to address this, so that more than 5% of the country can afford them. The Goverment’s proposed “green loans” scheme, of $10,000 each for 200,000 households, this may go a way to dealing with this, I haven’t seen the details. But we need more.

Again I suggest a RECS, renewable energy contribution scheme, where the cost of the unit would simply be applied to your electricity bill over some years. If people buy the home with the RECS unpaid, they inherit that debt and of course the benefit.

But there are many other ways to do it, and I am sure that the talented Greens MPs and their staff could come up with better ideas than mine. People want to contribute, but most lack the financial means.