Queensland Electricity Prices Will Make Solar More Attractive

The upcoming substantial jump in price for electricity in Queensland will help make solar power a more attractive option for homes and businesses; particularly with the new Solar Credits program available to most households throughout Australia, tax breaks and Queensland's feed in tariff scheme.

The Queensland Competition Authority recently announced that the notified prices for electricity for the 2009-10 tariff year commencing July 1, 2009 will increase by 11.82%.  However, notified prices will actually increase by an estimated 15.67% from what customers are currently paying.  The difference takes into account the amended price increase for 2008-09, which was announced on 5 June 2009, plus the 2009 – 10 price increase of 11.82%. 
 
According to Energy Minister Stephen Robertson, for people with an electricity bill of around $350 a quarter, the price rise will see an additional $55 on their bill – around 60 cents extra per day.
 
The increase has been spurred by several factors, being:
 
– an increase in energy costs of 12% reflecting the impact of rising fuel and capital costs;
 
– an increase in transmission and distribution costs of 12.3%  reflecting ongoing significant investment in the distribution networks; and
 
– an increase in retail costs of 8.7%  reflecting mainly the fact that the retail margin increases proportionately with the increase in all other costs.

The substantial jump in price for electricity in Queensland will help make home solar power a more attractive option; particularly with the new Solar Credits program available to most households throughout Australia. The solar credits scheme will offer up to $9,000 off the cost of a grid connect solar power system to not only households, but community groups and business as well. 
 
Solar power is particularly attractive for small business owners at present given the Federal Government’s Small Business and General Business Tax Break legislation, offering an additional tax deduction of 50 per cent of the cost (after rebates and RECs) of a solar power system purchased between 13 December 2008 and 31 December 2009.

Additionally, the Queensland feed in tariff scheme will pay grid connected system owners a rate of $0.44 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for surplus electricity fed into the grid, plus local electricity companies may choose to over additional payments above that.
 

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