Households and businesses wanting to participate in the ACT’s generous solar feed in tariff scheme will need to be quick – only just under a quarter of the installation capacity cap remains.
As of 7 July 2011, approximately 23MWof the total 30MW cap was already committed under the scheme and the remaining 7MW is unlikely to last long.
The Micro Generator component of the ACT Feed-In Tariff Scheme was closed to new connection at the beginning of June; but recent changes now allow new connections of small scale home solar power under the Medium Generator category.
Originally set aside for commercial-scale solar power exclusively; Micro and Medium scale generator categories now share a 30MW cap and participants in the scheme receive 30.16c per kilowatt hour for all electricity generated.
All applications to the re-opened Scheme will receive the premium payment effective for a period of 20 years.
The ACT’s feed in tariff differs to most in other states as it is based on gross production, rather than net. This means households and businesses can receive the premium payment for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated by rooftop solar panels; rather than just on the surplus energy generated as is the case in other parts of Australia.
The ACT’s scheme also offers the most generous cap on system size in Australia; with arrays of up to 200 kilowatts eligible. The nature of the original program saw national solar solutions provider Energy Matters becoming the first company in Australia to offer a solar rooftop leasing arrangement for medium-scale systems.
It’s understood at this point in time that once the cap is reached, a 1:1 net feed in tariff arrangement will take its place for systems under 30kW in size, meaning ActewAGL Retail will purchase the energy at the customer’s energy tariff rate.
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