solar
power rebate Victoria Australian rebates and incentives for
small-scale solar power installations have been rapidly dwindling - or
vanishing altogether - over the last few years.Here is a brief look at the
history of recent solar rebate programs and the impact of their sudden
disappearance on customers and the solar PV industry.
Solar Credits was introduced as a replacement for the Solar
Homes and Communities Plan (SHCP) scheme. On 9 June 2009, Federal Environmental
Minister Peter Garrett announced the sudden axing of SHCP rebate and the
program was closed to further applications on midnight of the same day.
Solar Credits came into effect soon after as a mechanism of
the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. Under the program, eligible premises
receive additional small-scale technology certificates or STCs (formerly known
as RECs), which can be traded for cash value.In December 2010, the Federal
Government announced its plans to phase out the rebate a year earlier than
planned.
From 1 July 2011, the Solar Credits multiplier was reduced
from five to three. On 1 July 2012, the multiplier reduced to two, where it
will remain until the program's end on 30 June 2013.
A replacement for the Solar Hot Water Rebate Program, the
REBS offered a rebate of $1000 for the installation of solar hot water system
or $600 for a heat pump hot water system.
Most recently, the FiT offered under Queensland's Solar
Bonus Scheme was slashed by 80 per cent for all new installations from July 10,
2012.
solar power rebate Victoria
The axing or scaling back of solar rebates over the last couple of
years has attracted intense criticism from the solar industry and renewable
energy supporters. In particular, the shock termination of the REBS in early
2012 was widely condemned as the latest in a series of blows to solar uptake in
Australia.
Chief Executive of the Sustainable Energy Association of
Australia, Professor Ray Wills said: "The renewable energy industry
continues to be plagued by government decisions at both Federal and State
levels that lead to boom/ bust cycles and fail to provide the conditions needed
to grow the industry sustainably... In 2012 we should have learnt something
from the poor decisions of 2011 - it appears we have not."The Australian
Solar Energy Society called on the Australian Government to reinstate the
rebate.
"It seems Australians are now being punished for
supporting one of the most successful clean energy programs introduced in
recent years," said AuSES Chief Executive, John Grimes."The
disastrous solar policy roller-coaster continues. Another solar scheme shut
down without notice, more solar jobs lost. That's bad policy and bad
process."
The disappearance of so many Government subsidies is
certainly a worry for the solar industry, with many in the clean-energy sector
concerned about the effect on manufacturing and installation jobs.
In response to the recent downsizing of Queensland's FiT
rate, Clean Energy Council acting Chief Executive Kane Thornton spoke of the
industry's disappointment in the decision and the predicted loss of around
4,500 solar jobs. The sudden axing of the REBS rebate sparked warnings that up
to 7,200 jobs across the country were in jeopardy, according to The Australian.There
is little doubt that State and Federal Government rebates have been
instrumental in driving the surge in solar power installations over the last
few years.The majority of recent solar rebate programs were introduced in
2008/2009; since then, the cumulative installed capacity of solar PV has grown
from under 100MW to well over 1,000MW, according the Clean Energy Council's
2011 annual report.The report shows that in the first eight months of 2011 -
when solar rebates were mostly at their peak - the number of Australian
households with solar panels more than doubled solar power rebate Victoria
