Australians Will Be Able to Earn $10,000 a Year Supplying Grid From Rooftop Solar

January 6th, 2010 by Susan Kraemer

The New South Wales government has just introduced a Solar Bonus Scheme that could have residents earning as much as $10,000 a year to send clean electricity to the grid from solar panels on their own roofs.

The incentive is a Feed-in Tariff like the one that was so popular in Germany that they ran out of solar panels last year, and that shook up the global solar market when Spain introduced theirs a few years ago, because they paid enough so that average homeowners could earn money from adding solar panels on their roofs.

The NSW government expects that most homeowner’s earnings would tend to be more in the range of $1,500 a year, just based on extra roof space estimates. But they could be in for a surprise. German homeowners were very resourceful in finding space somewhere for solar arrays, even over fences, churches, barns and pastures, once offered a way to pay for a renewable energy power plant without going into debt.

A Feed-in Tariff is a cash payment for renewable electricity produced, by anybody. You don’t have to be a utility to make electricity and supply it to the grid. If you have enough space (and sun) on your roof to supply both your own electricity needs and some extra for the grid, that extra going to the grid is paid for by your utility.

Two essentials are needed to make a Feed-in Tariff succeed:

The payment must be cash. A “credit” on your bill that expires at the end of each year, like California offers, tends to discourage homeowners from installing over-sized systems that send free energy to the utility.
At least two to one payment ratio. The relationship between the retail cost that you pay for your utility electricity, and the amount that your utility must pay you if you supply it. Germany initially paid three times the retail rate.

NSW electricity costs 19 cents per kwh, and they will pay 60 cents per kwh. That is why this is poised for the same kind of rocketing success that Germany saw with three times retail, and perhaps even more, as Australia is blessed with great insolation.

Both the German and the Spanish programs have contributed to the drop in solar prices that benefit everybody worldwide, by increasing solar adoption so fast. The three to one rates don’t have to remain that high. Germany has now tapered down its incentive to two times the retail rate.

Feed-in Tariffs are a way to push renewable energy onto the grid fast and affordably, both for homeowners, and for utility ratepayers who no longer have to subsidize either the new utility-scale power plants that would otherwise have to be built, or the new transmission costs to bring the power from them.

Image: Flikr user Margil

Source: Energy Matters Australia

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Tags: 60 cents per kwh, Australia, bill, EU legislation, Gainesville Feed-in Tariff, Germany, government incentives, Grid, Kraemer, New South Wales, progressive legislation, SMUD, utility district

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

Split the earnings? Because the electric utility would have a contract to buy from his meter – not yours.
http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer

Split the earnings? Because the electric utility would have a contract to buy from his meter – not yours.
Susan Kraemer

Yes, I hope so. Its sad seeing that curbed by the “no roll-over electrons” at the end of each year!
solarfeen

Here are some further details relating to the above.

THe NSW FIT runs for 7 years.

It is capped at 10KW per installation.

The program will be reviewed after 2 years or 50MW which ever comes 1st.

In a addition to the gross FIT, there is also a nation wide rebate. Where for the 1st 1.5KW the customer will receive Renewble energy certificates, which have a current maket value of around $4,800.

Also if eligble housholds are able to access 4 year intreast free green loans.

I think we will hit 50MW with the 1st year in NSW.
solarfeen

Here are some further details relating to the above.

THe NSW FIT runs for 7 years.

It is capped at 10KW per installation.

The program will be reviewed after 2 years or 50MW which ever comes 1st.

In a addition to the gross FIT, there is also a nation wide rebate. Where for the 1st 1.5KW the customer will receive Renewble energy certificates, which have a current maket value of around $4,800.

Also if eligble housholds are able to access 4 year intreast free green loans.

I think we will hit 50MW with the 1st year in NSW.
http://www.getit.org Barry Raveendran Greene

“A “credit” on your bill that expires at the end of each year, like California offers, tends to discourage homeowners from installing over-sized systems that send free energy to the utility.”

This has changed with two new bills which offer feed tariffs for home and small installations (see Feed-in Tariff’s Impact on California = Germany Runs Out of Solar Panels Due to Generous Feed-In Tariffs). AB 920 and SB 32 are bound to change many of the “power dynamics” in California.
http://www.getit.org Barry Raveendran Greene

“A “credit” on your bill that expires at the end of each year, like California offers, tends to discourage homeowners from installing over-sized systems that send free energy to the utility.”

This has changed with two new bills which offer feed tariffs for home and small installations (see Feed-in Tariff’s Impact on California = Germany Runs Out of Solar Panels Due to Generous Feed-In Tariffs). AB 920 and SB 32 are bound to change many of the “power dynamics” in California.
Susan Kraemer

Yes, I hope so. Its sad seeing that curbed by the “no roll-over electrons” at the end of each year!