Master Electricians call for national solar tariff regime

Master Electricians Australia (MEA) has called for uniform solar feed-in tariffs across Australia, to create certainty for consumers and the solar industry and to maximise the benefits of federal subsidies.

MEA chief executive Malcolm Richards said wide variations in solar tariffs between states and sudden changes to the schemes acted as a disincentive for both home owners and electrical businesses installing solar power systems.

He called on the state and federal governments to negotiate a uniform national regime, and to commit to a long-term timetable for the solar rebate scheme, stating: “Overnight changes such as we’ve seen in New South Wales create enormous uncertainty - both for home owners and for businesses delivering solar schemes.

“Many businesses have spent a significant amount of time - and taxpayers’ money - training their staff to install solar panels, and all that investment could be wasted if demand dries up as a result of sudden government decisions.

“A national system with a fixed, long-term lifespan would provide the certainty that home owners and businesses need to invest in Australia’s solar future.”

Richards agreed that the New South Wales scheme had been overly generous at 60c/kWh, and said a national tariff should be set at a more realistic and sustainable level.

However, he supported the gross feed-in tariff used in NSW, which paid home owners for all the electricity they produced. A net feed-in tariff, as used in Victoria and Queensland, penalises stay-at-home mothers who used more electricity during the day.

“We’ve seen, through the insulation issue, that putting too much money into an incentive scheme does not achieve the policy goals and simply leads to rorting,” he added. “We need to move to a moderate, gross feed-in tariff across Australia, to ensure a sustainable long-term future for solar incentive schemes.

“If the federal government is genuinely committed to fostering solar energy - and there is no reason to think it isn’t - it needs to ensure the tariff schemes are calibrated to encourage home owners and solar businesses.”