Big Week For Renewable Energy Industry in Australia

Big Week For Renewable Energy Industry in Australia

NEG is Gone. Australia set to have a new prime minister. It has been a big week for the renewable energy industry!

With the Liberal Party imploding and Australia expecting to see a new prime minister today. We thought it would be timely to discuss some of the changes that could happen in the renewable energy industry.

Although it is yet to be confirmed, it appears that the SRES (Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme) is likely to wind up almost a decade earlier (2021) than originally proposed (2030).

So what does this mean if SRES was to be removed?

Green Energy Trading Analyst Ric Bazzle stated that any consumer savings from scrapping the scheme early would be well and truly eclipsed by the added costs to consumers wishing to cut their bills by installing solar.

“The effect of scrapping the SRES by 2021 (as recommended by the ACCC) is to dramatically reduce the economics of solar PV at a time when the wholesale price of electricity and the export value (feed-in tariff) are also expected to reduce,” he said.

“The typical cost of a 5kW residential system will increase by $2,750 (45 per cent). This will lead to a three to four-year increase in the number of years that a system will take to pay back its capital.”

However, in the same week the Victorian Government issued a $1.2 Billion rebate program that would place rooftop solar on up to 650,000 homes. Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton said the Solar Homes Package will also encourage thousands of new jobs in the state, making It a win-win for families and the solar Industry.

“While rooftop solar Is an increasingly attractive proposition, this program will support even more Victorians to embrace greater energy independence through solar and storage technology,” Mr. Thornton said.

All in all, this means that the industry is still to see some changes at a government level, but Solar installations is on track to have its record year in 2018.

 

 

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References:

Vorrath, S, 2018. ‘NEW is Dead – What’s the future for rooftop solar?’
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