Ronald’s crystal ball says: “The future may bring lower feed in tariffs if wholesale electricity prices tumble.”

Increasing renewables will reduce wholesale electricity prices. Unfortunately that means feed in tariffs will probably fall too.

Solar feed-in tariffs – the payment households receive for surplus solar electricity they send into the grid – are likely to fall within the next three years along with wholesale electricity prices.

The bad news: a fall in both feed-in tariffs and grid electricity prices will reduce the returns from rooftop solar. [Read more…]

Solar Feed-In Tariffs Should Be Higher Than They Are — But Not As High As Some Believe

In my not at all humble opinion, Australian solar feed-in tariffs are too damn low!  People aren’t receiving a fair deal for the clean solar energy they export to the grid.  This is bad for our nation and the world because with a fairer price we would see more rooftop solar installed which would reduce the damage to our health and our environment from burning fossil fuels.

But before I am voted leader of the revolution for higher feed-in tariffs and march my armies on Canberra — or maybe somewhere that’s actually nice to go — I should point out that, unlike some people, I don’t think solar feed-in tariffs should equal the retail cost of electricity.  While feed-in tariffs  should be higher than they are now, a “fair” price is likely to still be less than what most of us are are normally charged for grid electricity.

As a result, this article will probably end up a successful attempt at making the maximum number of people possible disagree with me. [Read more…]

I’m getting reports that some electricity retailers are refusing to honour the full feed-in-tariff. In my opinion, that is theft.

Let Me Know If Your Electricity Retailer Is Cheating You Out Of Your Solar Feed-In Tariff… [Read more…]