Buying a solar hot water or solar power system is a substantial investment, often one needing planning well in advance.
Government rebates and incentives certainly help make acquiring a system much cheaper and speed up return on investment; but solar rebates and incentives in Australia have been somewhat a moving target over the last 10 months, causing confusion for consumers and industry alike.
The trend started with the premature axing of the SHCP rebate in early June 2009, followed by a window where legislation for the current, less generous Solar Credits rebate had yet to be passed, leaving the industry and householders in limbo. Late in June saw the end of the $8,000 RRPGP off grid rebate.
The NSSP Solar Schools grant was the next to fall, although that is still slated to restart in a couple of months time. In the last couple of weeks, the Government’s Green Loans program was also given the chop, accompanied by a reduction in federal rebates for solar hot water systems and heat pumps.
On the feed in tariff side of things, the Western Australian Government backflipped on a promise for a gross feed in tariff and ACT government is already considering recommendations to reduce the ACT feed in tariff substantially for new connections after June.
As of yesterday, another casualty was added to the list. The Queensland Government issued a statement saying that due to the Federal Government’s decision to end its program, the Queensland Solar Hot Water Program can no longer operate, and is being discontinued effective yesterday.
“The Government giveth and the government taketh away”, says solar solutions provider Energy Matters co-founder Max Sylvester. “All these short-notice and no-notice changes really create havoc – for householders trying to plan ahead and for the industry to do the same. It certainly does nothing to reassure investors and manufacturers and this contributes to there being little Australian manufacturing of renewable energy equipment for the residential market.”
“For this and other compelling reasons, we suggest people tossing up on whether to buy now or later should acquire their home solar power systems now – not as a marketing ploy, but the simple fact is that we do not know what will happen next with rebates and incentives in Australia. As recent history has demonstrated, nothing is set in stone.”
