"A nationally consistent, gross feed-in tariff will give homeowners the certainty they need to invest in solar power. The ACT has provided a model for a successful gross feed-in tariff, and it is essential that the federal government isn't swayed by the 'poor cousin' net feed-in tariffs in South Australia and Queensland," says Brad Shone, the ATA's Energy Policy Manager.

The Renewable Energy Amendment Bill inquiry is looking into a national, gross-metered feed-in tariff for domestic solar, which will pay owners of rooftop solar panels for all the energy their systems feed into the electricity grid.

Mr Shone says the Victorian proposed feed-in tariff could see households having to downsize their systems to take part in the scheme.

"People with systems larger than 2kW would have to remove an entire bank of panels, worth several thousand dollars, to be eligible for the Victorian payment."

"The net-metered feed-in tariff schemes in some states discriminate against households that use energy during the day, such as stay-at-home parents and retirees. These households won't produce excess energy, and so won't benefit from the feed-in tariff," says Mr Shone.

Mr Shone says the ATA is looking forward to the introduction of the Rudd government's promised uniform feed-in tariff, which will be discussed at next month's COAG meeting.

The ATA argues that gross feed-in tariffs - already in place in over 45 countries, states or provinces worldwide - are key to Australia's ability to continue to reduce its carbon emissions in the future.

"Increasing the uptake of alternative energy sources, such as rooftop solar, is essential to ensuring that the necessary structural adjustment can be made to the economy, in order to make the transition to a low carbon economy," says Mr Shone.

Both major parties in Western Australia have just committed to bringing in the world standard gross-metered feed-in tariff.

+ South Australia was the first state to bring in a solar feed-in tariff- start date July 2008. The tariff rate is $0.44cents per kilowatt hour, and will be paid on the energy the solar system feeds back into the main electricity grid, minus energy consumed in the home (called net metering).

+ Queensland's solar feed-in tariff scheme is similar to the SA scheme.

+ Victoria will be bringing in a feed-in tariff scheme in 2009.

+ Like QLD and SA, a tariff of $0.60 per kilowatt hour will be paid only on the energy produced over and above what the household uses.

+ In Victoria the payment will not be given to households with solar systems larger than 2kW.

+ The ACT announced Australia's most progressive feed-in tariff in August 2008.

+ A tariff of $0.67 will be paid on all the energy produced by a range of renewable energy systems(called gross metering), up to 10kW. Larger systems will receive between 75-80% of the tariff, on all energy produced.

+ Both the Labor and Liberal Parties in Western Australia have promised to introduce a gross feed-in tariff, similar to ACT, but limited to domestic solar power up to 10kW.

+ Since the introduction of gross-metered feed-in tariff, South Korea, Switzerland, Germany, Japan and Great Britain all have more solar systems feeding more power back into the electricity network than does Australia.

+ Japan now has 100 times more solar power installed than Australia, and Germany now has 500 times more solar power installed than Australia.

Related Links
ATA - Alternative Technology Association
All About Solar Energy at SolarDaily.com

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