The Victorian demand tariff appears to be a cunning plan to slow the spread of solar.
Residential demand tariffs are now available in Australia, and I recommend you watch out for them. If you are a modest user of grid electricity, as many solar owners are, they have the ability to blow your electricity bill through the ceiling. [Read more…]
Electricity companies around Australia are starting to roll out a new way to charge you for electricity. It is called a residential demand tariff.
Unsurprisingly this new tariff can result in higher bills for you, and higher profits for them.
This post is important. It will explain to you what a demand tariff is, how it works, and why many households should avoid it at all costs.
The electricity companies want to make demand tariffs the norm, so you must be armed with the knowledge to spot one when you see one, and understand the implications of signing up for one. [Read more…]
The last coal miners in South Australia have hung up their helmets, and the last coal fired power station has shut its doors.
History has been made with the closure of the Northern Power Station which has eliminated the use of coal in South Australia. And I say good riddance to you, Northern Power Station. I’m sorry you are no longer providing employment for people in Port Augusta or at the Leigh Creek coal mine, but I’m not sorry you are gone because you kill people and I am a firm believer that electricity generation should be death light. [Read more…]
The RayGen System focuses solar onto a novel concentrator. Image (c) Raygen
You get the best renewable energy stories tucked away in the rural press. Proof that solar power innovation in the bush is moving ahead by leaps and bounds. This despite the often backwards policy of our elected representatives.
So it was this week when a bit of digging unearthed the unveiling of a $3.6 million solar power facility in Newbridge in Central Victoria. The plant, developed by renewable research and development company RayGen Resources, combines PV cells with concentrating solar technology. [Read more…]
Were Victorians Sick Of the Liberal’s Anti Renewables Agenda?
Sometimes satire says it best. As one superbly entertaining online news company put it, this week saw the Victorian electorate dump “Whatisname” in favour of “Thatotherguy”. Labor’s Daniel Andrews (“Thatotherguy”) gave the federal Liberals a huge shake when he ousted the Liberal Party’s Denis Napthine, the first time since 1955 that a Victorian government has been ousted in one term. However we at SolarQuotes are digging deeper, asking how much the federal government’s prolonged and rasping attack on renewable energy played its part in the Vic Libs’ stunning loss. [Read more…]
Pretty dishy solar farm technology! Pic: Solar Systems P/L
Always great to bring our readers news of an Aussie breakthrough. However this week’s opening of Silex Systems’ massive CPV solar farm in Mildura, Victoria may prove to be more than just a cheery news item. Indeed it may offer a look at solar power’s future in the country.
CPV is of course Concentrating Photovoltaics. which in Mildura is getting solar cell efficiencies over 40%. No that was not a misprint. Forty Percent. Four Zero. Wowzers! Read that Wikipedia link to find out how they do it…
Here at SQHQ we’ve issued a number of rants (er discussion documents that is) on CPV and Mildura. These can be downloaded from the dank and dusty SQHQ archives shed here (second left past the outside dunny): [Read more…]
The Victorian government has just announced that their FIT has immediately been slashed from 25c per kWh to 8c per kWh.
Basically if you haven’t already paid a deposit on your solar system, you can’t claim the 25c FiT any more.
The details are a bit hard to get out of the Vic pollies at the moment. For example the 8c scheme starts on Jan 1 2013. So what happens to all the electricity a new solar system exports until then?
Also they say:
“The tariff will then be adjusted by the government each year in 2014, 2015 and 2016 based on the wholesale electricity price, before moving to a fully floating market price in 2017.”
Anyone care to hazard a guess as to what that actually means?
Read more from the Age here and from the horse’s mouth here.
The announcement last month from R&D company Silex Systems that construction on Australia’s largest solar power station at Mildura, VIC, has begun gladdens the heart. And the hip pocket nerve. After all Victorian and federal taxpayers are helping to fund this venture to the tune of around $120 million.
The Victorian parliament is set to vote in the new feed-in tariff laws as early as Wednesday. The proposition of this legislation has angered a great deal of green campaigners and supporters of renewable energy.
The farming industry of the state of Victoria has criticized the local government’s legislation on solar energy for disadvantaging them while other states offer the industry a far better deal.
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