SOLAR PANELS

Registered Electrical Contractor , Victoria

2nd March 2010

More would install solar if power paid for

THE cost of installing rooftop solar panels could be dramatically lowered by abolishing rebates and paying households a premium for all electricity generated at home, an economic analysis has found.

The analysis by consultants Access Economics, on behalf of the Electrical Trades Union, found a national gross feed-in-tariff would be a far cheaper way to boost uptake of rooftop solar panels than existing policies.

The union's Victorian secretary Dean Mighell said twice as many solar units would have been installed if the $1 billion spent on rebates was funnelled into a premium subsidy.

A national tariff has been backed by retailer Woolworths and the Property Council of Australia.

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/more-would-install-solar-if-power-paid-for-report-20100301-pdlu.html

2nd March 2010

Peter Garrett Demoted

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week stripped Mr Garrett of responsibility for the program because of serious problems with its implementation.

Mr Garrett was demoted on Friday after the now-axed $2.45 billion home insulation program he oversaw was linked to four deaths and 93 house fires.

He will remain as Environment Minister but his portfolio will focus on environmental protection as well as heritage and the arts.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/02/2833721.htm

26th February 2010

Changes to the Renewable Energy Target Scheme

The Government announced proposed amendments to the RET scheme effective from 1 January 2011 including:

the RET scheme will include two parts - the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET).
the SRES will provide a fixed price of $40 per REC.

http://www.orer.gov.au/

Visit: Media Release -26 February 2010

As detailed in the media release, the Government will shortly release an industry consultation paper and intends to legislate the changes in the Winter Sittings of Parliament.

19th February 2010

The Australian Government’s Home Insulation Program and Solar Hot Water Rebate have been discontinued as of close of business Friday 19 February 2010.

The Government announced a series of changes to the administration of the environmental programs to boost safety and improve environmental performance.

These changes are aimed at boosting safety for households and safety for the workers whose employment is funded by these important environmental programs.

A new household Renewable Energy Bonus scheme

A new household Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme will assist households save money on power bills and reduce their carbon emissions

The Government’s focus is on the safety of households and tradespeople who will both benefit from the operation of this new scheme.

Under the household Renewable Energy Bonus scheme households will be able to receive a rebate for the installation of ceiling insulation or a solar hot water system or a heat pump.

$1000 rebates will be available for ceiling installation and solar hot water systems and $600 rebates for heat pumps systems.

It is intended that the insulation component of the Renewable Energy Bonus scheme will come into operation by 1 June.

The Government’s objective remains to see insulation installed in up to 1.9 million homes, including those already installed under the discontinued Home Insulation Program, to be completed by 2011.

Significant Changes to Green Loans Program

The Government will help over an additional 600,000 Australian households tackle climate change through a re-designed and extended Green Loans program.

That is on top of the 360,000 assessments already available under the program, of which more than 270,000 have already been booked nationwide.

The re-design of the program will include:

the discontinuation of the less popular loans component next month to provide for the significant boost to assessment availability;
a new cap of 5000 assessors, allowing up to an extra 1200 trained assessors to contract with the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts;
a weekly cap of 15,000 assessment bookings and a daily and weekly cap per assessor of three and five respectively to ensure greater quality and a more even distribution of work for assessors right around the nation;
changed booking arrangements allowing only individual assessors to make bookings.

These new arrangements will apply to the end of 2010.

A new Green Start program

The Green Start program will now commence from 1 January 2011.

This Program will remain directed at helping low income households and those most at need improve their energy and water efficiency and help tackle climate change.

The Program will also include a web-based assessment tool for all households.

This Program will include in-home sustainability assessments, providing an ongoing pipeline of work for home sustainability assessors following the Green Loans program.

http://www.environment.gov.au/minister/garrett/2010/mr20100219.html

http://www.environment.gov.au/eehp/insulation/index.html

http://www.environment.gov.au/energyefficiency/solarhotwater/index.html

http://www.environment.gov.au/greenloans/index.html

18th February 2010

Dodgy Solar Installations

ABC's Lateline program has revealed that up to 2,000 homes could be at risk of electrical fires from poorly installed roof-top solar panels.

Ted Spooner, from Standards Australia's committee on renewable energy, has told Lateline that there is no restriction to stop panels which do not meet the Australian standards being imported into Australia.

Mr Spooner says there needs to be more inspectors and an audit of the scheme.

"There is very, very limited inspection of houses to make sure they actually meet those requirements," he said.

"If you have poor quality modules, you can have fractures in electrical joints, and that can lead to arcs and then fires, and these burn at quite high temperatures."

Peter Marshall from the United Firefighters Union of Australia says there are concerns faulty panels could cause high voltage fires.

"The problem is, there's been a rush towards installing this type of equipment," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/18/2822941.htm

Accredited Solar Power Grid Connect Design & Install

9th June 2009... Australian Government Press Release

Announcement has been made that Solar rebate has been phased out as of 9th june 2009 until the new "Solar Credits" scheme which should replace the Solar Homes and Communities Plan(SHCP) from this day till expiration.

www.greenhouse .gov.au/renewable/pv

Green Loans Program

Green Loans is a new Australian Government initiative to help Australians tackle climate change. Green Loans has two main components of support from the Australian Government:

a free Home Sustainability Assessment and report (valued at over $250); and

access to a Green Loans subsidy provided to participating financial institutes to cover up to four years interest for borrowing of up $10,000, to implement changes recommended in the assessment report

http://www.environment.gov.au/greenloans/index.html

Solar Credits Scheme

Through Solar Credits, households installing rooftop solar panels can receive five times as many RECs for each megawatt-hour of solar energy produced by their solar panels. For example, based on a REC price of $40, a 1.5 kilowatt solar panel system installed in Sydney would receive $6200. Based on a REC price of $50, the same system would receive $7750.

“Solar Credits will significantly reduce the cost of going solar at home,” the Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong said.

http://www.climatechange.gov.au/en/minister/wong/2009/media-releases/September/mr20090910.aspx