“The fact is the Government have totally backflipped on this issue, retreating from a laudable ‘gross’ feed-in tariff promised during the 2008 State election to a grossly inferior net tariff scheme,” said Greens energy spokesperson Robin Chapple MLC.
“What that means is that householders will not get paid a cent from the Government’s new scheme unless they export more power to the grid than they use.”
“Anyone reading the newspaper will tell you that lots of solar panels companies are busily putting photovoltaics on residential roof tops, but they are almost always for systems of around 1 to 2kW in size, which will help greatly to reduce the power consumption at those houses but will not totally provide for the energy consumption of those residents.”
Mr Chapple said that even if 95% of the average power consumption of a home was provided with renewable power infrastructure, the householder in question would get absolutely nothing from the WA Government.
“The Minister today has made ludicrous claims about the payback period under his scheme, but unless householders have more solar panels than they need the payback period is simple; never.”
“It should also be noted that at this stage there is no action on the possibility of a feed-in tariff scheme for businesses; just a proposed feasibility study,” Mr Chapple added.
- Contact: Robin Chapple 0409 379 263
