Queensland’s feed-in tariff: playing politics with solar?

Solar Cuts

Solar Feed In Tariffs axed in Queensland

Unsurprising news this week that solar feed-in tariffs in Queensland will be cut from one of the country’s most generous (0.44c per kilowatt hour) to 0.8 cents per kilowatt hour has led the solar news this week in Australia.

Regular readers of this column may be expecting your correspondent to fly off into an anti-state government tirade about favouring earth-destroying fossil fuels over the renewable energy industry. [Read more…]

Can Aussie solar soar despite sorry policy options?

a graph showing 94% vs 6%

Most Aussies Seem To Like Solar Power

A couple of renewable energy reports released recently have shown how important solar power is to the country and outlined (again) its major potential as an energy source. Unfortunately the studies also reveal how much our politicians still have a lot of catching up to do to reach the general consensus held by most Australians.

Firstly the results of the 100 Percent Renewable poll in which over 40 groups canvassed the opinions of around 12,000 Australians over renewable energy. The results were an extraordinary 94 percent of those polled believe that the government should do more to assist the construction of big solar plants in the country. [Read more…]

Japan’s solar revolution?

Japanese Sunshine

Solar Panels: About to be Big In Japan?

As Japanese anti-nuclear activists celebrate the closing of the country’s final nuclear reactor, making Japan temporarily nuclear free, a power revolution of another sort is set to begin in the Land of the Rising Sun.

While debate rages over whether or not the country should remain permanently nuclear free, rumblings from the country’s once-mighty Ministry of Trade have hinted at the emergence of a renewable-led energy sector. Your correspondent’s memory seems to recall that it was this ministry (also known as METI) which was in the driving seat of planning the great Japanese industrial and export-led economic post-war “miracle,” culminating in the booming success of the 1990s.

[Read more…]

Discover How Australia Could Be Powered By 100% Renewables

Auses LogoIf you live in Adelaide and would like to hear about a 100% renewable powered future then come along and say hi next Wednesday At UniSA:
Australian Solar Energy Society SA Meeting

Towards electricity without fossil fuels: finding the best mix of renewables, demand management and storage
[Read more…]

Bob Brown and solar energy: the Senator’s real legacy

Bob Brown Loves Renewable Energy

Bob Brown – photo credit flickr:james_tCA

As Greens leader Senator Bob Brown bowed gracefully out of politics this week, news of the latest milestone in the construction of Australia’s largest solar farm shows he is leaving Australian politics a far more supportive place for solar energy than he found it.

Despite some sniping from political enemies both in and out of Parliament (including a predictable diatribe from a well-known Opposition wingnut saying that Senator Brown’s legacy will be the carbon tax), opinion from commentators was that he was that rare political animal: an honest representative with a clear vision. This was particularly so on renewable energy. [Read more…]

‘No Can Do’ for Campbell’s Queensland Solar Projects

solar dawn logo

Will the sun set on Solar Dawn?

Well that didn’t take long did it folks? No sooner had Campbell “Can-Do?” Newman adjusted the height of the premier’s chair following his landslide win in the Sunshine state, than the plug was pulled on one of Queensland’s flagship solar projects. In moves that have become familiar to solar supporters around the nation, solar (and other worthy renewable projects) are usually first to go as new governments look to impress their new electorates.

[Read more…]

Germany takes knife to solar subsidies

Solar Power in Germany

A German Solar Installation – Are the Solar Glory Days over in Deutschland?

From manufacturing quality cars to leading the continent in economic policy, Germany is often considered Europe’s “go to” country. The “engine room” of European manufacturing also is well out in front of its neighbours in renewable energy policy, with its clear and consistent support for solar installation legendary. [Read more…]

The way forward for feed-in tariffs?


A Rural German Solar Installation

Not sure how many SolarQuotes readers caught this fascinating Radio National discussion during the week. Amongst a number of issues raised, it gave a number of insights into the problems facing how Australian governments deal with solar power incentives.

Hosted by Waleed Aly with guests Matthew Wright, executive director of the renewable energy action group Beyond Zero Emissions, and Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute, the discussion also included a brief cameo appearance by phone from the ACT’s minister for sustainable development, Simon Corbell.

[Read more…]

Would the solar industry be better off without government support?

Sir Humphrey discusses the UK's Solar Feed In Tariff

Fascinating article this. The UK’s only Green MP, Caroline Lucas, takes to the pages of The Guardian to launch a broadside against the UK Government’s investment policy in relation to solar energy.

The UK Government this week lost an appeal in the High Court against a lower court’s ruling that its retrospective attempt to change the solar feed-in tariff rates imposed by the previous Labour Government was “legally flawed”. The Cameron Government had tried to reduce the rates before the agreed consultation period had expired.

[Read more…]

Solar Power Forecast for 2012: More stability, better forecasts, fewer conspiracies?

solar to grow in 2012?

This year should be the year that renewables start to take off in Australia:

  • We will have a carbon tax in place that will support renewable energy and overseas money is starting to flow in.
  • Large scale solar is finding funding, following the trend from overseas.
  • Chinese production of solar panels is bringing the cost of solar energy rapidly down towards that of fossil fuels.

But there is one factor that governments, both federal and state, need to provide: stability.

The solar industry needs to sense that financial support given in one year won’t be withdrawn the next when the going gets tough or when a newly-elected government reverses the previous government’s solar policy just because they can.

Certainly in the case of solar energy the governments’ efforts to forecast costs got an “F” grade this year. In a New Year’s resolution that we think makes complete sense, the Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) has promised to carefully watch over the government’s solar forecasting in 2012 on behalf of the nation’s solar industry. Reading between the lines it seems AuSES is none too pleased with the end-of-year report card for government forecasting agencies.

“As a national voice for Australia’s solar industry, the Australian Solar Energy Society has made a New Year’s resolution: to work more closely with Government agencies to ensure there’s no repeat of the 2011 solar forecast mistakes,” the society said in a recent release.

This brings an image of government forecasters sitting in class rooms watched over by AuSES teachers. The solar forecasters, gazing out into the playground where their fellow  number crunchers are all playing, before looking down and writing: “I must not bugger up the solar forecasts again” 100 times.

Am I being too harsh here? After all a forecast is just as it states: a forecast. But surely it should have some relation to the outcomes?

The AuSES release points to four key areas where forecasts had to be speedily revised to bring them to within a bull’s roar of real outcomes.

1. The Productivity Commission’s overstating of the cost of solar subsidies per tonne of CO2, forcing it to revise down the cost of solar subsidies from $431-$1041 to $177-$497.

2. The Energy White Paper, released by the federal government, which overstated solar’s cost by a factor of three.

3. The Treasury Department’s estimate that the country would have around 9 gigawatts of solar by 2050. However 1.2 gigawatts has already been installed, with yearly installations increasing ten fold since 2009.

4. The NSW Government, led by Barry “The Terminator” O’Farrell, forced to revise the cost of the state’s solar bonus scheme down by nearly a quarter.

Hardly inspiring is it? No wonder AuSES chief executive John Grimes described 2011 as “a horrible year for government solar forecasting”. And why are the forecasts always so against the interests of the solar industry? Is the reason for the solar forecasting simply the innocent result of a culture of excessive drinking and partying in our state and federal capitals? Or are there other motives at work?

There you go folks, a nice little conspiracy theory to kick off the year. Wishing you all a safe, happy and productive New Year.

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