Comments on: Yet Another Underhanded Attempt To Fight Solar

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 06:44:00 +0000

Sorry, I should make it clear that the unsubsidised cost is about $3 a watt.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 23:45:00 +0000

I read today that we’re down to about $2.30 an installed watt for solar in Australia. Not quite down to German levels, but getting close and we got there astoundingly quickly.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:56:00 +0000

It appears to be happening now with solar with solar saving on grid infrastructure costs and many Australians paying about 24 cents for grid electricity per kilowatt-hour but only able to get 8 cents for each kilowatt-hour they supply to the grid.

By: Altair IV

Altair IV — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 23:16:00 +0000

I’m no expert here, but it seems to me that FITs could move away from fixed-rate subsidies and adopt dynamic pricing schemes. Something like “the current retail rate – x%”, with x being increased gradually over the period of the tariff, or perhaps something based on the spread between the retail and wholesale prices. However it’s done, as conditions change, so ideally the base tariff rates would follow, without it ever paying out too much or denying anyone a fair payback.

By: Stefano R

Stefano R — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 17:40:00 +0000

How long before we see a reversal from incentives to taxation for those who have Solar to support the legacy power grid.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 14:21:00 +0000

Many Australians now get eight cents a kilowatt-hour for exporting electricity to the grid for local. Eight cents hich is about what a coal plant 100 kilometres and a lot of transmission infrastructure away might get get for electricity during the daytime. And after buying solar electricity for 8 cents the distributor might sell it to the neighbours 10 metres away for 24 cents. So it seems as though many Australians with rooftop solar are now subsidising the grid. Just what people should be payed for exporting electricity to the grid I’m not sure, there are a couple of ways to look at it, and daytime electricity prices are dropping. But people should definitely be compensated for electricity they provide. It would be nuts to pay for coal and gas power but not solar.

By: RobS

RobS — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 09:24:00 +0000

Cutting them has hurt payback times, some people on 50c+ feed in tariffs were having paybacks of 2 years and making $20-$30,000 profits from their system in the first 10 years. It was obscene profiteering and is responsible for much of the bad will and opposition to distributed solar, it had to and did end none too soon. I am all for appropriate subsidies to help new technology overcome initial roll-out resistance, but the most important part of any subsidy is a phased withdrawal because in the end subsidies that don’t reduce over time actually prevent cost reduction and leads to significant political and public opposition. Solar in Australia can now stand on its own two feet without feed int tariffs or subsidies the existing subsidies should be gradually phased out over a few years then removed.

By: Ronald Brak

Ronald Brak — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 05:03:00 +0000

The cutting of feed in tariffs for millions of Australians down to about a third of the retail cost of electricity has hurt payback times. Especially for people who are out of the house for much of the day.

By: RobS

RobS — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 21:02:00 +0000

The hilarious thing about this is that what they are suggesting is to reduce the subsidy level once payback falls below 10 years. they are using data several years old in their discussion of the issue because in Australia paybacks are currently 5 years with subsidies and 7-8 years with no subsidies whatsoever. So what they are really proposing is to scrap the subsidies early as unsubsidised payback is now below 10 years. There is nothing they can do, short of actually applying a government surcharge or tax to increase the unsubsidised payback to their 10 year target level.