A GOVERNMENT body has recommended that future solar panel owners should no longer receive monetary incentives for supplying energy beyond their household or business.
Currently, homeowners and businesses with solar panels are being paid by energy companies above the retail rate for their excess power.
Instead they will be paid the normal retail amount, changing the feed-in tariff – being more economically sustainable for renewable energy industries, according to the draft report.
Ballarat company MG Brown solar specialist Kelly Becker hopes that despite the cutback in government incentives, customers shouldn’t be impacted too much.
“There has been a mad rush with customers enquiring about solar panels, because nobody wants to be out of pocket,” Ms Becker said.
“With the cut in the rebate last year, the cost of equipment went down so it didn’t alter prices too much and with the power going up, solar panels will still be the cheaper option in the long term.”
The draft reported, released yesterday was conducted by the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission (VCEC) after being initiated by the state treasurer.
VCEC commissioner Deborah Cope said the new proposals would move towards a competitively set feed-in tariff (FiT) for all low emissions and renewable technologies.
“Overly generous subsidies are regressive as they increase energy prices for everyone, including renters and other consumers who do not have the capacity to invest in solar PV systems,” Ms Cope said.
“The proposals in this draft report aim to cut barriers to connecting small and medium scale low emissions generators to the network,” she said.
New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia have all changed their tariff schemes in the past year.
