If you were thinking of installing solar panels on your roof in NSW in order to take advantage of some of the government incentives for home-based solar power, you’re all out of luck. The NSW government has suspended the Solar Bonus Scheme thanks to the rising costs associated with the popular project.
The energy minister Chris Hartcher today announced that the scheme was set to add an estimated $651 million to the state’s budget deficit over the next four years. As such it has been suspended and won’t be accepting new applications, although applications currently in the system will still be processed.
This is a huge blow to the growing number of people considering a solar panel installation in NSW. Considering the amount of talk and effort that the country is trying to put into renewable energy, suspending an incentive program because of its popularity seems like a hugely backwards step.
Whether the scheme is closed permanently will be discussed at the government’s solar summit in May. Here’s hoping they don’t decide to kill it off.
[SMH]
Charles
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 4:41 PMWhen the scheme was first announced it was clear then that it would only be in place for a limited time. I was surprised when it was extended, albeit at a lower level. It’s completely unsurprising to see a Liberal government cutting it completely.
Cooper
Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 1:01 AMLol i suppose if a non-liberal was in government they would magically find the money to fund the project
Phil
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 6:41 PMTaking this new government’s figures the program is currently costing the state $183 million a year. I beleive that this is less than the revenue that will be lost if the ‘suspension’ in made permanent. The green jobs that have been created by the scheme will be gone and more coal fired power stations will have to be built. Small business and the tax revenue it generated will be surpressed but big business will be subsidised to mine the coal, build the infrastructure and generate the egergy centrally. The cost of electricity will continue to rise with no way for consumers to escape the impost. This is an ideological decision not a financial one.
matt
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:05 PMthats sad… it shouldn’t have been cut completely…
I always thought it was overly generous that feed in tariffs were so many times higher than what people paid for electricity… it seems to me it still would have been more than worth it if the feed in tariff was the same or just a bit higher than what people pay! more to the point, due to the obligations of the power companies to offer green power, I’m sure they would have been more than happy to pay tariffs at these levels without any intervention at all!
having said that, from what I’ve heard the initial subsidies on the panels are pretty generous too… I’ve heard even basic systems would cost 10k without them!
jaycee
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 8:03 PMResidential solar is a waste of money and resources, propped up only by government subsidies. Industrial solar is a different matter.
andy
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 8:31 PMand this is why i do not support the federal Governments Carbon tax … No alternative solutions been sort for renewable energy … the TAX will just that a tax to grab more money for them to waste –a part hereof already been locked in to give the UN – bribe for a place on the security council…
moloko
Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 1:40 AMBring on the taxes
hivallyhillbilly
Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 10:07 AMi don’t think home solar systems are a waste of time at all..i’ve had a 1.5kw/h system installed for 3 months now and should get my first new bill in the nest week or so.from i can gather on the meters my usage has dropped by 2/3 to what it was.from 15kw/h per day to 5.5kw/h per day on average bringing costs from $418 to about $180 per quarter without what we may get from the feed in tariff.i agree 60cper kw/h is quite high and i’m not sure if i’ll get that or 20c.i don’t want to make a profit from people without solar,i’d be happy bettig the going rate which is 22c.maybe if enoug people had solar installed the price of power could even come down…although we all know the price will never go down no matter what but it sounds good.i’m all for solar power station but if you want to buy green power from our supplier it costs extra so who’d do that?if it was the same price or less then more people would buy it.i sure would..
kama
Monday, May 9, 2011 at 3:52 PMthe solar incentives scheme is a purely a political tool to make the masses think the government is doing something about clean/renewable energy.the sad reality is tax payers are paying for the units installed on a couple of levels.firstly our taxes are paying for the rebates being paid on the installations.
Secondly electricity prices are increasing because of the premium prices being paid for the solar electricity being sold back onto the grid and the reality is that even with 300MW of solar energy being produced, peak load demand has not been reduced.Therefore power stations still must produce the same amounts of power but now with a lower revenue base, so in turn electricty gets dearer.
Thirdly, because of the increase in solar hot water units and heat pumps and the like being installed people are moving what used to be off peak powered appliances onto peak supply periods
so their actual power usage may be down but the load is now in a peak period at a dearer rate.
the most effective way to bring down the cost of power and save wasted energy and burn less coal/ gas is to have a more balanced system that is our peak load demand is no more than 25% above our lowest load demand
herman
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 6:10 PMWe had some clowns running this state previously.
But are these lot any better?
There seems to be a lot off hot air from all sides
The action polies have taken is a no brainer.