Australia’s Resources Minister Martin Ferguson used the recent Solar Flagships conference to again reject a proven way to massively boost solar energy uptake in Australia – a gross, uniform national feed in tariff that pays the owners of solar power systems; including home owners, a premium rate for all electricity they produce.
Australia currently has a fractured feed in tariff system, with each state having its own program or none at all. The incentives vary wildly – from the ACT’s generous gross feed in tariff that pays for all energy produced by a solar power system, to Victoria’s upcoming system that some say hardly qualifies to use the term.
A gross feed in tariff has been shown time and again to be one of the most powerful ways to boost renewable energy investment. It’s been called a stimulus package without the public debt. The idea of such a system being implemented here has the support of many Australians, demonstrated by the 18,000 plus signatures on a petition at FeedInTariff.com.au.
But Mr. Ferguson remains unconvinced.
At the Solar Flagships conference last week, Mr Ferguson outlined quite a few concerns, among them: “Feed in Tariffs are not the solution some make them out to be…The Government should not be attempting to pick winners…A solar PV feed in tariff does not guarantee Australian jobs. In fact it could simply result in greater imports of PV panels…Germany’s solar subsidy saw German consumers in 2007 pay more than €1 billion in additional power bills to cover the cost of this policy – and yet – only around half of 1% of Germany’s gross electricity consumption come from solar PV that year.”
The full text of Mr Ferguson’s speech can be viewed here.
An article in The Australian by Giles Parkinson counters some of what Mr. Ferguson had to say about the German experience:
“But the solar industry points out that was never the point of the scheme in a country with such lousy solar conditions. Germany now possesses the intellectual property and the manufacturing and export capacity that is expected to make it one of the three dominant global players in an industry that will be worth tens of billion dollars a year. It now has 50,000 employees in the solar industry. Australia, with the best solar conditions in the world, and the home of some of its best technological developments, has little more than 1000, and no manufacturing capacity to speak of.”
Switching to a gross national, uniform gross feed in tariff for solar power may not be so much “picking winners” as Mr. Ferguson puts it, but more about choosing an already proven winning strategy on multiple fronts – boosting renewable energy investment in Australia, creating thousands of green jobs, reducing power generation related greenhouse gas emissions and a solid alternative to Australia’s controversial RECs (Renewable Energy Certificate) multiplier system.
What are your views on state vs. national feed in tariffs? Share your thoughts here.
