S.A. Feed-in Tariff Reviews
Home Solar News October 21st, 2010South Australian households and small customers with solar energy panels will soon be getting a guaranteed extra 10 cents for each kilowatt-hour of electricity they feed into the grid.
Currently, South Australia’s nation-leading feed-in laws guarantees a bonus of 44 cents per kilowatt-hour of excess electricity fed back into the grid from household solar panels.
Premier and Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change, Mike Rann, today announced the State government intends introducing legislation to increase the bonus to 54 cents per kilowatt hour.
In a keynote address on South Australia’s Leadership within a Carbon Constrained Economy, Mr Rann said the extra 10 cents was not the only benefit available to South Australians who invest in solar energy.
“In addition, retail electricity providers will be obligated to pay a cost for the power they receive from residents who feed power into the grid via their solar panels.
“This will be in addition to the 54 cents and could well bring the bonus up to around 60 cents per kilowatt hour.”
“The Government believes that South Australians that choose to invest in solar energy deserve to be paid a fair price for the power they contribute to the network. Our amended scheme will ensure this happens.”
The payment by electricity retail companies will be at least as generous as that paid in the other States. This includes NSW which provides a higher payout but over 7 years, compared with South Australia’s 20 years.
The Government has also accepted recommendations from the review to restrict eligibility so that the feed-in benefit can be made available to as many consumers as possible.
Mr Rann says those intending to install solar panels to take advantage of the new scheme will be subject to new eligibility criteria including:
- a limit of one generator per customer.
- the exclusion of additional generators installed specifically to create a profit from the scheme.
- the bonus will be limited to the first 45 kilowatt-hours per day – this limit will not affect normal residential systems (i.e. those less than 7 kilowatts).