ELEMENTS of the Victorian Government's new solar power feed-in tariff were "bizarre", the Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions group vice-president said this week.
"The figures just don't add up in the residents' favour," Lisa Kendal said.
The government has proposed paying households with photovoltaic systems 60c for every "unused" kilowatt hour of power fed back into the state electricity grid.
The feed-in tariff - while almost four times the current retail electricity price - will not apply to household solar systems greater than two kilowatts in capacity. But Ms Kendal said it was unlikely most households would generate
surplus electricity unless they had a system larger than two kilowatts.
However Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the new scheme, to be introduced next year, would "encourage more households to install solar photovoltaic systems and encourage solar-powered households to be
energy efficient and maximise the amount of power fed into the state's electricity grid for other customers to use".
South Australia, Queensland and the ACT have also proposed paying a premium for energy generated by domestic photovoltaic installations.
In South Australia the minimum solar feed-in tariff is 44c a kilowatt hour but this is payable on systems up to 10 kilowatts in size.