Rooftop Solar And Battery Support Under The Spotlight In WA

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Western Australia’s Energy Minister Ben Wyatt says he is examining support and incentives for solar power and battery storage in the state.

In comments made to The West Australian, Minister Wyatt said he was looking into the impacts of a recommendation by the ACCC to axe Australia’s solar subsidy prematurely. He has also directed the Public Utilities Office to examine WA’s solar feed-in tariff, the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme (REBS).

The West Australian report indicates the Minister may support the accelerated winding back or early axing of the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and expressed a belief Synergy’s REBS rate of 7.1c a kilowatt hour may be too generous.

“The current REBS buyback rate is currently higher than the value of solar energy during the day,” he is quoted as saying.

Whether that is true depends on how solar electricity is valued, for example if avoided health costs and environmental damage are taken into account – too often these important elements are ignored.

What could be considered a bright spot is Minister Wyatt is looking into promoting the uptake of solar batteries in Western Australia, as he says storage would helping maximise the use of existing infrastructure and reduce the cost of electricity supply.

While going solar in Western Australia is a wise investment for many households and businesses, SQ’s Ronald noted in May that Perth has the longest simple solar payback period of all capital cities on the mainland.  This is due to the level of electricity prices in the state and it having the lowest feed-in tariff in the country. Any reduction in the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme rate could extend simple payback, however the cost of solar panels continues to decrease and electricity prices¹ in WA continue to increase.

According to the latest data from Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator, the number of small scale solar power systems installed across Western Australia is approaching 266,000 – so any attempt to reduce the REBS rate will probably meet with significant backlash.

Some early adopters of solar panels in WA are on much higher feed-in incentives – either 40c or 20c per kilowatt hour. There’s no indication Minister Wyatt is looking at changing the legacy arrangements, but those rates finally expire in 2021.

There’s been no official announcement as yet from the Western Australian Government providing further details on all this, only The West Australian’s report.