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Renewable Energy News

WEDNESDAY 20 JULY, 2011 |

South Australia Energy Minister - No More Cheap Mains Electricity

by Energy Matters

According to South Australia's State Energy Minister, Michael O'Brien, there will be no return to cheap power and the fact 90,000 South Australian households had already taken up on solar power rebates and incentives to install systems showed that consumers in the state are "energy savvy now".

The comments, reported in an article on AdelaideNow, were in connection to a initiative to be introduced in South Australia whereby a house will not be able to be sold or rented without a "green star" rating.

Green Star was developed by Green Building Council Australia to be a comprehensive national environmental rating scheme that evaluates the environmental design and achievements of buildings.

Minister O'Brien believes the mandatory green star rating system will raise the value of energy efficient houses and encourage home owners and landlords to improve the energy efficiency of buildings. The ratings will also help buyers and renters to gain a better idea of a potential home's running expenses - an increasingly important point for consideration in an age of rapidly escalating energy costs.

Even without such a rating system, rooftop solar panels have been shown to boost the value of homes and depending on various factors such as incentives, a solar power system can be a better investment than shares or having money in the bank. With the cost of coal-fired power generation set to continue increasing, solar energy is also rapidly moving towards grid parity.

In addition to the Solar Credits rebate, South Australian households making the switch to solar can benefit from the State's generous feed in tariff scheme that pays system owners 44c per kilowatt hour for surplus electricity generated. However, people considering acquiring a system may want to move soon as the rate will be dropped substantially from 44c per kilowatt hour to 22c for new connections to the scheme occurring after September.

National solar solutions provider Energy Matters is currently offering a series of solar package deals to help as many households as possible in Adelaide and across South Australia to acquire a solar energy system before the deadline..