We’ve seen three significant steps in the last 24 hours in the campaign to save Australia’s solar industry.
Last night in Senate Estimates hearings, Christine plugged away at Penny Wong over the ludicrous decision to means test the rooftop solar rebate at a family income of $100,000. She succeeded in getting the Minister to acknowledge that the decision was based on feeling that the program was “too successful”, with too many people taking it up, and that it was justified by a report from the Alternative Technology Association. However, the Minister hadn’t realised, until Christine told her, that the ATA’s report used net after tax income figures, while the means test was applied, of course, to gross taxable income.
You can read the press release detailing the discussion here, and I’ll post the Hansard transcripts as soon as I can.
Then this morning, we had a call from a constituent, letting us know that Alan Jones was taking some serious swipes at the Government over the ludicrous decision to means test the rebate, saying the kinds of things we’d been saying. We thought, what the hell, and Christine called in, to a remarkably positive reception from Jones. You can listen to the ten minute interview here. If Jones gest seriously involved in the campaign, it could raise the stakes quite significantly.
Finally, at lunch today, Christine joined Liberals Environment Spokesperson, Greg Hunt, and several representatives from the solar industry for the first joint press conference between the Greens and the new Coalition Opposition. It made quite a splash to see Christine and Greg shaking hands over a solar panel and promising to work together. Thanks so much to the good folks from Conergy, Solartec Sales, Green Energy Trading and Solco!
We may still see a reversal of this crazy decision.
Keep up the good work Christine.
My children’s school was just starting discussions with the solar city people to get 50 of the households from the school set up with PV solar systems, but naturally all of this planning ceased with the absurd announcement in the recent budget.
I am just hoping that two other local solar cities projects are far enough advanced that they are not dropped too.
Wow. I don’t think I would have believe Alan Jones said this if I didn’t just hear it for myself… Never thought I’d be wholeheartedly agreeing with him!
Go Christine!
I completely concur with you Justin!
To enter the devil’s lair(s) and not be burnt, that’s very impressive. Well done Christine, playing with fire and turning up the heat!
Just listened to that 10 minute interview. Great stuff Christine. I’m surprised that Alan Jones had you on his show. I think he only did it to have a crack at the ALP. I really think deep down he does’nt care much about solar energy. Anyway he came across nice the greens got our message across and hopefully with the public support a bit this will get kicked along more.
[...] “1154″, “http://theburgess.net/green”); Solar rebate farce not going away We’ve seen three significant steps in the last 24 hours in the campaign to save Australia’s [...]
Although rebates on solar systems are comendable, currently I think the whole solar industry is in its fad stage and products totaly overpriced and probably abosrbing much of the rebate as profit. This is based on reseach I did on renewable energy systems in WA back in 1996 and I have no reason to believe things have changed much since.
I think the money would be better spent at the moment making improving to the passive climate performance of buildings. I think the Greens advocated this at one time and probably still do. Plus hot water.
The down side is it is big job and should significantly reduce power consumption and that is not good for the profits of the power generation industry but great for lowering carbon emmisions. Again vested interests and the obsolete monetary ecconomic system we use, which requires expansion all the time is clashing with physical reality.
If you can afford or have the expertise to install and renewables then fine and building authorities should encourage implementation and some private experiemntation. So perhaps if you have the expertise and not so well off you are more eligible for a subsidy than some who is financialy well able to satisfy their wants.
Home renewables are the way to go but lets introduce them into buildings designed to make the best use of their charateristics which is different than current power delivery systems we have grown up using.
I think the current political fighting over subsidies is a waste of effort. Sorry Christine..
Remote Area Power supplies (RAPS) excluded from this view point.
In WA we have been lucky enough to have a provider establish a 1500 for 1500 program, in which on the promise of 1500 signups for a 1kw grid-connected solar system the provider will negotiate bulk buying to get the price down to $1500 after rebate.
So much for the industry trying to absorb the rebate as profit.
I agree with KTJ,
Unless the push for a National rebate program for green energy inputs to the base load grid is maintained, there is a very real danger that the current “fad” interest in PV will dissipate.
The means test virtually eliminates quality control assurances from the market. The AGO grant program requires a verification process assuring that an accredited designer / installation team is using Australian Standards approved equipment before sign off for grant approval.
Now that the main market demographic is no longer able to access the grant, the industry will circumvent the QA assurance process simply because there is no longer a cost benefit and make up the shortfall by selling cheap unreliable hardware using the quickest & cheapest short term install methodology to keep prices comparatively low.
Five years down the track nobody will want to know anything about PV or Suburban grid connect systems because the zeitgeist will be convinced they are a sham and don’t work as advertised.
It’s a double edged sword, the comparative wealth combined with a westernised popular media driven cultural isolation foisted on the average middle class Australian makes for an easy advertising target, however it also creates an environment where the mob can be kept ignorant of the reality most of the rest of the planet is facing.
The good business incentive inherent within a National tariff scheme will encourage larger green technology generator investment programs with long term investment attititudes ensuring that good standards are maintained.
Penny’s w ong and needs to be put right on several levels before this government embarks on the long haul to no where, dragging a chain of gradually increasingly dissatisfied and frightened wage slaves behind it.
Further to my comments on home PV system base on research done in 1996 before th subsidy. The major project was from an environmental science perspective with an external cost factor included. The scenario was based on costing wind and PV farm and Retail home pack on the South West grid. At that time NSW had brought out the SEDA retail price structure which was used as yard stick, could we generate renewable energy for the SEDA price. A life expectancy was given for each system and the domestic financed and expected to work with the same reliability as the industrial.
Quickly it became evident that Perth had a peak load directly proportional to quality sunlight. That is, when the sun shone brightly the power consumption went up proportionally because of commercial and industrial air conditioning.
No renewable could compete with either gas or steam turbine even for peak load. The domestic PV using the then Western Power max limit of two square metre panel if you wished to export to the grid, simply put, the capital cost per watt was so many times higher than a Western Power PV farm it was not in the race.
What did come out very well was supplying peak power by ripping of the roofs of houses and building a 200 or so sq metre panel. This was much better than a solar farm no “land costs” and small transmission losses and serious amounts of energy for export as well as home consumption. Making an allowance for mass production of components for wide spread implementation capital cost per watt droped even further.
There is and unexpected bonus for the property underneath, a full PV roof is an active heat insulator acting in much the same as a tropical roof on a Land Rover. You can test this yourself if you have a solar hot water panel over tiles. On from inside of the roof on sunny day, tiles under the panel are cool while tiles exposed to the sun are very hot. Where is the heat in the water storage cylinder! Similarly PV panels do the same by supplying power to the grid, may be not so effective as a water panel but still an effective environment conditioner for the structure underneath so reducing the energy needed to keep that structure cool.
There are probably many development “tricks” that can inovated to enhance the viability of renewable technology.
There is an economic down tag to such a large home PV scheme and this is where the current economic system fails. Anyone who owns such a system “should” receive a considerable income from the sale of power above and beyond expenses and would be a primary producer. In effect they are reversing consumerism. To the economy it would be like putting a sizable rocket on the nose of the Space Shuttle pointing backward. Firing it in mid flight would if large enough send the craft unstable with disastrous consequences.