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Australian state accused of reducing solar opportunity

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A proposal from the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) to move to a gross feed-in tariff scheme for rooftop solar power would rob Queenslanders of the opportunity to save money by generating their own electricity, according to the Clean Energy Council. Clean Energy Council Policy Director Russell Marsh said the QCA was conducting a review to estimate a "fair and reasonable" solar feed-in tariff for Queensland, but what it has proposed is anything but fair or reasonable to households and businesses.

"What the Queensland Competition Authority has proposed is the equivalent of telling people they can't just use the lemons growing on the lemon tree in their backyard "“ they have to sell the produce to a wholesaler for next to nothing, and then buy the lemons back at a premium from the supermarket," he said. "Installing rooftop solar panels is one of the best ways households can save money on their electricity bills because it can significantly reduce the amount of electricity they need to buy from the grid.

"Changing to a gross scheme now would change all of that," Mr Marsh said.

The current net feed-in tariff scheme allows households to generate electricity from solar panels for their own use, with any extra electricity feeding back into the grid at a rate of 8 cents per kilowatt hour. A gross feed-in tariff scheme would force households to sell all their power into the grid (at 8 cents per kilowatt hour), and then buy back all the power they used at the much more expensive retail rate of between 17 and 35 cents per kilowatt hour.

"Not only is this proposal unfair, it would also discourage people from trying to do the right thing and be more energy efficient at home," Mr Marsh said.

The Clean Energy Council has made a submission to the QCA's review of Queensland solar feed-in tariffs. The QCA's draft report is due on 30 November 2012, with the final report to be released in March 2013.

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