Rebates and zero-interest loans for solar panels, solar hot water systems and batteries account for one of the major spends in Victoria’s 2019/20 budget and come at a cost of $1.3 billion.
The 2019/20 Victorian budget is investing $545 million over five years under its landmark $1.3 billion Solar Homes program. From July, the program will commence rebates for renters and energy storage and interest-free loans, as well as continue rebates for solar panels and solar hot water systems.
Delivering on its election promise, the state government has expanded the scheme to include renters. To access the rebate and interest-free loan, landlords and tenants must agree to share the cost of solar panel installation. Renters will make a 25% contributionthrough a small levy on rent over four years, while the government and landlord will foot the rest of the bill. The scheme aims to provide $82 million in rebates over 10 years with the goal to support 50,000 Victorians who rent their home.
Interest-free loans will allow households to install half price solar without any up-front cost and will be repayable over four years. In terms of battery rebates, the Solar Homes program will provide $40 million to support 10,000 households. A 50% rebate for a solar home battery system will have a maximum value of $4,839 in 2019-20, which is expected to be the price of a typical 11 kWh solar home battery system.
The introduction of annual caps on the number of rebates for PV arrays, solar hot water applications and battery systems was described as an additional measure to boost safety and ensure an orderly rollout of the program. It built on the government’s decision to make smart inverters mandatory for solar PV installations under the program and introduce safety and industry accreditation requirements for installers and solar retailers.
The Solar Homes program’s ultimate goal is to subsidise the cost of solar panel energy systems, solar hot water systems or battery storage for homes with existing solar panels for 770,000 homes over the next 10 years. With $1.3 billion needed for the full rollout, the program is one of the major spends in this year budget, alongside $3.8 billion plan to build new hospitals, more than $1 billion for schools and a $27.4 billion suburban transport blitz.
Commission to better police energy retailers
The 2019/20 Victorian budget also includes $27.27 million for the Essential Services Commission to ensure that energy companies who try to rip off customers face the consequences. The Commission will get an extra Commissioner, dubbed “an energy cop on the beat”, who will prosecute misbehavior by energy retailers.
Under the government’s Energy Fairness Plan, the civil penalties for retailers who wrongfully disconnect customers will double to $250,000 – making it the highest fine of its type in the nation. Criminal penalties for misleading or deceiving customers are also being upped to $1 million.
“The Energy Fairness Plan also gives the Commission clearer investigatory powers, as well as new powers to monitor and report on the Victorian retail energy market and crack down on retailers doing the wrong thing,” the government states in a release. “The Commission will take action if retailers ignore our ban on ‘win-backs’ – so-called short-term discounts that end up costing customers more in the long run.”
The budget is also investing $48 million in the Power Saving Bonus – where Victorian households receive a $50 payment if they seek out a better electricity deal on Victoria’s Energy Compare website. It is extending the initiative until 30 June 2020.
Under its Delivering for Regional and Rural Victoria Program, the government will make a funding contribution to a 10 MW solar farm for Newstead. This will help transition the town to 100% renewable energy.
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1st 2019.
Increasing the “energy literacy” of average consumers would benefit the whole country, a Queensland academic argues.
Peta Ashworth, who is the University of Queensland chair in sustainable energy futures, produced a report exploring what people from households to governments understood about where their energy came from.
Professor Ashworth said the majority of people had some stance on whether they supported renewable energy or fossil fuels, but they usually weren’t informed opinions.
“Generally understanding the supply chain of energy – how we get electricity, what happens when you put solar panels on your roof, renewable energy certificates, I don’t think people understand all these things,” she said.
“Sometimes it can be quite confusing. I think people are genuinely interested, especially when they want to make an investment, like buy solar panels for their roof.
“They want to do something for the environment or save money but I think we have a long way to go to understand the ramifications of that.”
Most people were generally supportive of the idea of more sustainable power generation but didn’t understand what needed to be done to make that happen.
“People are concerned, but they don’t want to put a price on the environment right now,” she said.
“Because the cost impacts are felt all the time, I think people can say ‘not in my lifetime’.
“That’s not everyone, there are some people who’ve really been doing their bit to try to reduce their overall footprint, so there’s a mixed bag.”
As an example, Professor Ashworth pointed to people who proactively installed solar panels on their houses but also accepted government rebates to help offset the cost.
She pointed out those rebates functioned as carbon credits companies could purchase from the government to offset their own carbon emissions.
Being aware of that might cause some people to refuse to take the rebate, she said, but on the other side of the debate, more information was needed about the take-up of solar panels more generally.
“The one thing I’m thinking about right now is what happens in 20 years time when all the solar panels on people’s roofs need to be recycled because they’re not putting out power any more,” Professor Ashworth said.
“Are we ready for that transition? Who’s going to pay for it?”
“Everyone’s entitled to their view, but I see my role as a social scientist to give the facts and allow people to make informed decisions.”
The key recommendation from the report is to set up an initial workshop featuring industry and government representatives to figure out the best way to provide the most accurate information on the issue to the public.
Professor Ashworth said the goal was to identify where gaps in knowledge existed and plug them where possible.
“We’ve got to be able to answer those questions, we’ve got to be able to work with communities,” she said.
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1st 2019.
The controversial solar rule change governing projects 100kW and over in Queensland has been declared invalid by that state’s Supreme Court, after a legal challenge by a solar farm developer.
The managers of the 35MW Brigalow Solar Farm in the state’s south-east said on Wednesday afternoon that they had succeeded in their challenge to the new regulation, which came into force on May 13, despite a huge industry backlash.
The case was brought by Maryrorough Solar with the support of the Clean Energy Council and other industry heavyweights, against the Electrical Safety (Solar Farms) Amendment Regulation 2019 (Qld). The highly unpopular and rushed through rule required licensed electricians to mount and fix solar panels on projects of 100kW and over.
“The regulation has been declared invalid. It was beyond the regulation-making power in the Electrical Safety Act,” said a statement from Impact Investment Group – the financial backer of the Brigalow project that counts high-powered renewable energy investors among its ranks, including billionaire cleantech supporter Mike Cannon-Brookes.
“The new regulation would have required solar panels to be put in place and fixed by licensed electricians, whereas they can now continue to be installed by trained labourers.”
“This decision will help Queensland keep growing a safe, clean and vibrant renewables industry – the cheapest form of new power generation,” said Crockett, in comments on Wednesday.
“We’ll keep working with all stakeholders – including government, investors, industry and the teams building our solar farms, to make the industry even safer and even more successful.”
“Queensland is a key part of the picture for moving Australia to a clean energy system, so we’re looking forward to getting on with safe, efficient construction at the Brigalow Solar Farm, and helping the state meet its renewable energy targets.”
The Clean Energy Council’s Anna Freeman, who has fought the regulation change from the outset, described the ruling as “a victory for common sense,” and added that it was disappointing that it came down to a court challenge.
“Our preference was for a proper consultation process and full consideration of its regulatory impact,” Freeman said. “Mounting and fixing unconnected solar panels to a rail is mechanical work – not electrical work – and we are very pleased the Supreme Court of Queensland has ruled in the industry’s favour.”
Freeman said industry remained committed to working with the government to deliver safety improvements in the solar industry, but with certain conditions.
“The solar industry recognises that safety is paramount, but this new regulation did nothing to improve the safety of workers and was not justified by the government’s own safety data,” she said.
“Any future changes should be formulated in consultation with the industry and all relevant stakeholders, and should be based on evidence. We look forward to working with the Queensland Government to help achieve our shared aims of safely delivering on its 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030.”
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1st 2019.
The world’s largest macadamia processor has turned to solar power in a bid to lower energy costs, lift profitability, and reduce its environmental footprint.
The Macadamia Processing Company (MPC) has installed a 600-kilowatt solar electricity system on the roof of its factory at Alphadale, near Lismore in northern New South Wales.
The 100 per cent grower-owned cooperative has invested close to $1 million in the solar system, which has been registered with the Federal Government’s Clean Energy Regulator as a power station.
MPC’s general manager Steven Lee said they expected a full payback for the project in less than three years.
“The equipment’s got an effective operating life in excess of 20 years, so we’re looking forward to making savings for the life of that project and some pretty significant reduction in energy consumption,” he said.
“We’re generating a peak of around 400 to 450 kilowatts, depending on how bright the day is and where the sun is.
“Unfortunately, we can’t get solar energy during the evening — otherwise it would be great.”
Mr Lee said their new solar system generated around 25 per cent of the plant’s total electricity demand.
“It’s pretty close to supplying all of our energy use during the day, so yes if we’ve got a nice bright sunny day then we’re almost operating free of charge — thanks to the sun,” he said.
Processor investigates other renewable energy options
With a busy macadamia harvest underway, and nut coming in from suppliers across the Northern Rivers and southern Queensland, the factory operates 24 hours a day, six days a week.
“Given we’re consuming all the electricity we generate there’s really no incentive to look at battery storage at the moment,” Mr Lee said.
“But if we were able to come up with other ways to generate electricity then storage would certainly be something that would be of interest.”
While MPC may never run its factories on 100 per cent solar energy it was looking at other technologies to lessen its environmental impact and save money.
“There’s potentially microturbine technology, so by burning waste shell we could generate thermal energy that could potentially be converted to electricity by that technology,” Mr Lee said.
“But that’s something that’s just being investigated at the moment.”
Australian macadamia industry on uneven playing field in global market
Local food processors are feeling the pinch when it comes to rising energy costs, and Mr Lee said switching to solar would help level the playing field with their international competitors.
“We’re operating in an environment where we’re competing with a lot of countries that have lower cost to manufacture their products,” he said.
“We’re looking at every opportunity to reduce our energy input costs, be it gas whereby we introduced a shell-fired boiler to reduce our LPG consumption and also this solar system to reduce our energy consumption.
“We need to make sure that we’re competitive against countries that have lower costs of labour and lower costs of consumption.”
MPC was also considering a solar future for the processing facility it recently acquired in Queensland.
“With us taking 100 per cent ownership of the Pacific Gold Macadamias factory in Bundaberg, one of things we’re investigating up there is the installation of solar to help offset electricity costs of that factory,” Mr Lee said.
“That project’s being assessed at the moment, so if everything stacks up it could be the next six to 12 months.”
The energy savings from MPC installing a solar system will result in a greater return for macadamia farmers in NSW and Queensland supplying nut to MPC.
“The efficiency savings will allow us to pay our growers more for their macadamia crop into the future, so it’s a win for us as a business but also a win for our macadamia suppliers,” Mr Lee said.
Lynwood macadamia grower and MPC director Andrew Leslie was fully supportive of the switch to solar and said it was an “excellent move”.
“It runs nearly 80 per cent of the day shift in the factory, that’s running everything which is a huge impact on the environment and a huge impact financially,” he said.
He said the factory also used 100 per cent of the nut with the kernel sold for consumption and the shell waste turned into electricity.
“We use 20 per cent of the shell at the factory for the boilers to run all the heaters and then we sell the remaining 80 per cent of shell to other industry for their boilers and heating set-ups,” Mr Leslie said.
“We use 100 per cent of the product, so how environmentally sustainable is that?”
Mr Leslie said macadamia farming practices have changed dramatically over the past five years.
“What we do now compared to what we did five to 10 years ago … we’re so much greener now, we’re spraying a lot less, we don’t use tractors when it’s wet or after heavy rain to avoid the impact on the soil,” he said.
“After every harvest run we go through and fix up any problems with the finger wheels so that they’re running a lot more efficiently. So instead of doing two runs, we do one pass so that’s a saving on diesel.”
He said farmers also de-husked their macadamia crop on farm with many using solar systems to reduce energy consumption.
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1st 2019.
The first phase of the Victorian Government’s popular but messy rooftop solar rebate program was never going to satisfy the demand for household solar in the state, according to figures from the national Clean Energy Regulator.
The rebate program provided for an initial allocation of 24,000 households over the nearly 12-month period to the end of the 2018-19 financial year.
In October last year, a government spokesperson told the ABC the 24,000 rebate cap represented “an approximate 25 per cent increase on business as usual”.
But according to monthly reports published by the Clean Energy Regulator, 24,623 Victorian households had already installed rooftop solar systems during the previous eight months from January to August 2018.
On these numbers, the Victorian Government’s scheme was always going to fall short of demand for rooftop solar.
On top of this, the rebate prompted a spike in the number of solar installations, which increased by about two-thirds following the rebate announcement.
When the ABC approached the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning for a response to these findings, a spokesperson said the program was “designed to help Victorians on fixed, low and medium incomes, who may otherwise have struggled to afford solar, significantly cut their cost of living”.
The Andrews Government announced the rebate offer in August last year as part of a $1.3 billion “Solar Homes” package.
Most households with a combined income of below $180,000 were eligible for the scheme, which offered up to $2,225 in rebates for small generation solar units.
Although the program was capped at 24,000, the avalanche of applications pushed the number of rebate approvals to 32,000 before the Government decided to temporarily stop the program last month, with the intention of re-opening it in July.
Solar Victoria last week re-opened the rebates to customers who had already installed panels, but had been locked out of the program after the temporary stop in April.
The Victorian Government expanded “Solar Homes” in the latest budget, providing more rebates and low interest loans for householders, and that will now also include renters.
The program is expected to subsidise rooftop solar, home batteries and solar hot water for 770,000 households in Victoria over the next decade.
The Andrews Government says funding will also be provided in the program for training, safety and quality audits.
Allison and John Taylor spent about $4,000 on a rooftop solar system to power their home and family business in Williamstown, in Melbourne’s south-west, in April.
“We’re drawing less from the grid so we’re providing for ourselves a bit. It’s a ‘feel good’ thing,” Ms Taylor said.
They expected the rebate process to be fairly straightforward, but when Mr Taylor went to apply for the rebate to get half of their money back, he found the program had suddenly closed just hours before.
“It’s more just the disappointment of it, not that it would change anything. You would still put panels on,” Mr Taylor said.
With the rebate program now back on track, Mr Taylor said he was going to reapply for the cash he expected to get back the first time around.
Melbourne solar retailer Tarak Shah owns one of the many companies affected when the Victorian Government hit the pause button on the solar rebate scheme.
He was forced to let five staff members go from his company, Sunrun Solar, after the temporary rebate freeze left the business with about 10 per cent of the work it had previously.
“It puts a lot pressure on yourself as a business owner, you know, when you have to look after not just yourself, but probably about eight or nine of your employees, plus your installers, their workers, and their families,” Mr Shah told 7.30.
“If they don’t get work, then of course they can’t put dinner on their plate.”
He said government rebates had made business unsustainable long-term, with months of barely any income, followed by surging demand.
“Every time there is a government announcement related to the solar industry, all of a sudden there is a ‘solar coaster’,” Mr Shah said.
“The customers will jump on board, but then as soon as the rebate stops, all those customers will jump off.”
While he supports government incentives, Mr Shah said he wants to see a more sustainable approach to rebates.
“When it comes to having no work for two months because, you know, it’s stopped and there’s a re-opening date on it later, it’s hard for the customers to make that decision to buy now.”
Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1st 2019.
In a landmark development, Australia’s principal energy rule-maker has paved the way for network operators to sever the network ties to remote customers, and deliver stand-alone power systems based around solar and batteries that will deliver big savings to all consumers.
The supply of electricity to remote and rural areas, via some 900,000 of kilometres of poles and wires under schemes such as the original rural electrification programs, was an important but immensely costly exercise to deliver electricity to as many people as possible.
It involves huge cross-subsidies paid by consumers in more heavily populated areas, and while networks and stand alone power suppliers have acknowledged that off-grid supplies would be a cheaper, cleaner and more reliable solution for some time now, the archaic rules of Australia’s electricity market did not allow it.
That may finally change following a review and recommendations from the Australian Energy Market Commission, which says cutting hundreds or even thousands of kilometres of poles and wires, and replacing them with stand alone systems featuring a mixture of solar, batteries and diesel back-up would be both cheaper and cleaner.
And, the AEMC says, it would also be safer and more reliable, because of the reduced impact of storms, bushfires, floods and the like.
The AEMC has had a look at the issue previously, but rejected a Western Power application in 2017, mostly due to legal technicalities. But it asked the COAG energy council to ask it (the AEMC) to perform a review of the law and to recommend changes (that’s the way things work in this country), and this is the result.
It’s a significant change. It is a further tangible breakdown of the old centralised energy system that held that supplies should be centralised and networks extensive.
That worked for the fossil fuel industry, but the emergence of solar, storage, smart management systems and other distributed energy resources – and the transition of the consumer to a pro-super that can supply some or even all of their own power – as individuals or as groups and communities – is hugely significant.
The AEMC says its feedback to date has been the most overwhelmingly positive it has ever received, a sign of the pent-up frustration over the issue from networks, system providers, customers and local government, and the opportunities that new technology presents.
AEMC chief executive Anne Pearson told RenewEconomy in an interview on Wednesday that while the numbers of customers identified for “transition” to stand alone systems by local networks over the next•10 years is “relatively low” – see graph above – the potential savings – because of the extreme cost of connecting and maintaining poles and wires – would still deliver “significant cost savings” across the board.
“This is one of the rare win-wins for everyone,” Pearson told RenewEconomy. “It is a win for DER (distributed energy resources such as solar and batteries), a win for people who want cheaper power, and for people who want safer power.”
Grid owner Western Power has identified more than 15,000 candidate sites on its network in Western Australia where customers could benefit from stand-alone power systems over the next ten years. In NSW, Essential Energy has identified more than 2,000 customers.
In Queensland the numbers total several hundred (probably because there is already more stand-alone power systems), while South Australia surprisingly did not identify any. But the report may only scratch the surface.
These systems can range in size to supplying a single bore pump to a micro-grid covering a whole town. And it is highly likely, RenewEconomy believes, that given the falling cost of solar and storage,. and rapid improvements in management systems, that the number of consumers that could benefit from stand alone system would be far greater than imagined here.
One study in 2016, for example, pointed to some 40 mid sized towns – some not on the edge of grid at all – that could benefit from cost reductions if they cut the cord to the central grid and had their own renewables-based micro-grid.
That might be too much, however, for the incumbent utilities to contemplate, even if Western Power envisages a “modular” grid where many of its consumers operate on a stand alone system, and some with only a “thin” connection.
Western Power points out that many of its customers who could benefit from stand alone power systems actually live close to major population centres, but because of the ageing infrastructure stand alone power systems make sense, cutting costs by more than 50 per cent. For more than 2,700 customers, the savings are 80 per cent.
Two years ago, Western Power argued that it could save $400 million through such a scheme. “This is as close to a ‘no brainer’ as we can get,” said Andrew Dillon, the then interim, and now current CEO of Energy Networks Australia, which teamed up with the Alternative Energy Association and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre to try to encourage regulators to come to the party.
In Queensland, the networks estimate that stand alone power systems are more economic when replacing poles and wires of more than 4kms per customer.
Essential in NSW says that it costs up to $25,000 per customer, per year, to clear vegetation in some areas, and it also notes that one 1,905km line serves just 335 customers. Just imagine how many lines service less than one customer for every kms.
“We know there are some sites ready to go,” Pearson says, “these are the poles and the kilometres of the wires that we don’t need, because of high costs or safety issues. We can make this happen.”
Actually, there is still a bit of legal and policy work to do. The rules need to be okayed by the COAG energy council and then go through the laborious process of actually being change, but it could all be in place by early next year. In the traditionally glacial pace of regulatory change in Australia, this is a fast-flowing river.
And it may not stop there. A second leg of the project will look at helping new communities, such as housing divisions, which do not want to connect to the grid in the first place, again in recognition of the plunging cost of both solar and battery storage.The AEMC report notes that battery costs fell globally by 40 per cent in a recent years, but by 73 per cent in Australia over the same time. And capital costs for a fully installed residential storage system are expected to fall by another 58 per cent by 2030.
“We are seeing the cost of these technologies drop and drop and drop,” Pearson says. “This is a great way to take advantage of what technology can provide as costs come down.
“This has been a really great project for us on so many levels,” Pearson says. “We can improve outcomes for remote customers, who have been suffering from poor reliability outcomes and high costs.
“It promotes DER, and our people have really relished working on this program. It’s been both creative and productive, they have visited various communities, it’s great for them to see the technologies at work. We hope that COAG makes it a priority and makes the necessary changes to law as soon as possible.”
Essential Energy put the potential savings from its identified 2,000 or so customers at more than $220 million. But the system-wide savings could be in the billions.
W.A consumers were subsidised to the tune of $600 million, much of it to remote and regional customers, before the government wound it back after deciding the budget couldn’t afford it. In Queensland, the bill to ensure a universal price for all consumers – be there in the city or the country or at the end of the grid – remains at around $600 million a year, although the cost is less visible in other states.
The one complication is the so-called “ring fencing” rules that means that the network owners cannot be generators, so unless they can get a waiver they will have to find a third party, or a subsidiary, to provide the generation (the solar and battery and back-up).
That leads to another question about whether Australia’s electricity market is hamstrung by vertical integration (generators and retailers on one hand, and network providers on the other), that serves it poorly, but we’ll leave that for another day.
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German battery manufacturer Sonnen has launched its “bill shock” busting solar and storage energy package, SonnenFlat, in Victoria.
The fixed price deal offers households who install a sonnenbatterie with rooftop solar (and a smart meter) a flat monthly rate for their electricity, starting at $42 a month.
The Victorian launch gives the Royal Dutch Shell-owned company’s SonnenFlat program access to all of the eastern NEM states, including Tasmania, New South Wales, the ACT, Queensland and South Australia.
And it gives Sonnen more scope to push the energy package, which is yet to take off in Australia, despite the company’s battery sales numbering well over 3,000 by the first quarter of this year.
The idea, as Sonnen’s Asia Pacific CEO Nathan Dunn explained to One Step on Thursday, is to give household the advantage of knowing how much they’re going to pay for their electricity every month.
It works by sonnen offering a guaranteed annual energy allowance through sonnenFlat including solar, storage and grid energy usage for a fixed fee.
Packages range from 7,500kWh for $42 per month, 10,000kWh for $52 per month and 12,500kWh for $62 per month.
“Each one of the customers that we sign up, we have a discussion about which plan will suit them, going by the capacity of battery they’ve got, how much solar, their current load,” says Dunn.
“Recommendations might be either to upgrade the capacity of their battery, add more solar, or just to go on x plan, because what they have got will be enough. And there’s no lock-in contract.”
For Australians, who – if we are to believe the media and politicians – rank high electricity prices among their top cost of living concerns, it should be an attractive proposition.
But, as Dunn puts it, “it’s still a work in progress.” And meanwhile, the company’s batteries are gaining popularity.
As he told Giles Parkinson in March, Sonnen expects to “easily” double its sales of batteries within the next 12 months.
Uptake – which had been led by New South Wales households – is particularly taking off in South Australia, since the establishment of a manufacturing facility in the old Holden car plant in Adelaide.
“The support that we get from local consumers is great,” Dunn said. “That investment proposition seems to be really paying off.”
On SonnenFlat, Dunn says the key hurdle for the company is to educate Australian consumers – and not just about the savings they can make, but the choices they can make that, over time, will help Australia to transition to clean energy.
As we have reported previously on One Step, Sonnen sees its energy deal to be as much about empowering customers and capturing market share, as becoming a player in the national electricity market.
Ultimately, it hopes to use its network of behind the meter battery storage, solar and smarts as a “virtual power plant” to provide valuable grid-balancing services.
As the company’s former regional boss Chris Parratt told One Step in 2017, it would take just 500 installations in any one state to build up enough capacity to draw on to play in the frequency control and ancillary services (FCAS) market.
But it’s a long way from that yet. And as Dunn notes this week, more stable national policy and a willing and able incumbent distribution and generation industry would help matters, greatly.
“It would be wonderful if there was a federal government that was actually providing some level of support … and driving Australia towards a clean energy future,” he told One Step.
But, he notes, “as an industry, we have done fairly well over the last 10-15 years with the lack of support that has come from federal government.
“It’s up to us to educate the consumers, they can still make their choice. In the first instance, they can cut costs, but over time, the can help Australia make the low-carbon transition.
“And as much as we have to educate our customers, we’ve also got to do the same thing with some of our distribution and generation networks.
“I think they still have to be convinced. A lot of the products out there at the moment are not necessarily helpful products for DNSPs. Whereas SonnenFlat is helpful.”
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Canberra businesses would be given rebates of up to $5000 to install solar panels under a new ACT government scheme.
Under the scheme, businesses would be subsidised to install the solar panels following consultations with energy efficiency body Actsmart.
The government would then cover half the cost of the solar panels, up to $5000.
Businesses would only be able to access the rebate after they had committed financially to other energy-saving measures, such as changing lighting to more energy-efficient bulbs, as part of Actsmart’s Business Energy and Water Program.
The scheme only applies to businesses with a maximum of 20 employees and an annual electricity bill of up to $25,000.
The scheme would also apply to eligible community groups.
ACT Climate Change and Sustainability Minister Shane Rattenbury said the rebate scheme would allow for more businesses to reduce their power bill as Canberra heads into another cold winter.
“We know that Canberra households are taking up solar options in droves, doing their bit for the planet while keeping energy costs down,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“Now, more businesses and other community organisations can reap the benefits of rooftop solar.”
The launch of the rebate scheme came after a trial began in February this year, with more than 50 businesses and community organisations taking part.
Of those, 10 would receive the subsidised solar panel following the trial.
Among them was the Weston Creek Uniting Church, which had 40 solar panels installed two weeks ago.
The church’s treasurer Simon Hearder said the church signed up for the rebates after their energy bill doubled in the past two years.
“We’re hoping to halve our bill in the immediate future, and in three to four years time, we’re hoping for even less than that,” Mr Hearder said.
“The church hall is used for activities by other groups every day, and people are very pleased that we’re going ahead with the solar panels as it will lower the operating cost of the hall to everyone.”
The solar panels will be turned on at the church in the coming days.
The new solar rebate is the latest in a long line of schemes in the ACT aiming to boost renewable energy use.
The scheme for businesses and community groups is similar to a program introduced last year aimed at low-income households.
Participants in that scheme were offered a 50 per cent rebate of up to $2500 to install then solar panels, with an interest-free loan of three years for homeowners.
The ACT government was also supporting the roll out of 5000 solar battery storage systems in Canberra homes and businesses.
Those with a battery can get a rebate of $825 per kilowatt up to 30 kilowatts.
The scheme aimed to reward early adopters of the technology, with $25 million in grants available for those who installed the batteries by 2020.
A further $4 million in grants was set aside by the government to subsidise the cost of installing the batteries.
Many Canberra homes with solar panels installed are still subsidised by the government’s feed-in tariff scheme.
The scheme closed off to new participants in 2011, such was the demand, with it paying as much as 50 cents per kilowatt hour.
More than 10,000 homes signed up to the premium tariffs.
Mr Rattenbury said the new rebate scheme would put the ACT on target to meet its 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2020.
“By supporting more Canberrans to make the solar switch, we’re bringing bills down and putting our climate first,” he said.
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Rooftop solar industry veterans say Australia has become a dumping ground for poor-quality solar products and some are questioning the regulatory oversight of household rooftop solar installers and products.
An audit of the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) late last year found it is likely there are potentially tens of thousands of badly installed and even unsafe systems on rooftops.
Not only are these systems risky, it is likely they are not producing the clean energy that Australia’s renewable energy target relies on.
About one in five Australian homes has installed rooftop solar.
The ANAO found 1.2 per cent of rooftop solar installations have been inspected by the regulator.
The regulator’s inspections found that about one in six solar installations was “substandard”, and about one in 30 was “unsafe”.
Based on the sample, the audit found there would be hundreds of thousands of substandard installations and tens of thousands of unsafe solar systems across the country.
On the day 7.30 visited Mr Leighton’s property, Johann Fleury’s company Thirroul Solar was removing the panels and replacing them.
“These can’t be fixed. There’s no way of reversing the issue that they have with them,” Mr Fleury said.
“So they are basically just dead panels.”
It is not a job he likes doing.
The panels he was taking down will most likely end up at the tip, as there was nowhere nearby to recycle them.
Mr Fleury was just one of dozens of solar installers 7.30 spoke to who said poor-quality rooftop solar was all too common.
“A large amount of those earlier panels, since I’d say 2008 all the way till 2014, a lot of those panels have come back down off roofs,” he said.
He is worried about the reputation of the rooftop solar industry, with poor-quality systems that may only last a couple of years leaving customers disappointed and out of pocket.
“There’s a lot of things that are wrong or negative within the solar industry,” he said.
In Canberra, Dr Michelle McCann runs one of the few laboratories in Australia that conducts commercial testing for solar panels.
“We’re in a pretty good position to assess how panels are performing across the whole of Australia, simply because we are one of the few options in Australia,” she said.
“We have found that the performance is really variable across Australia. Some are fine, great, and some are really poor.”
Dr McCann said even new panels from high-end brands may not perform as well as expected, and often manufacturing faults are not visible to the naked eye.
“You can’t tell from the outside of a panel whether it’s going to be good or bad, and you can’t tell by looking at the brand name of a panel whether it’s going to be good or bad,” she said.
One of the worst-performing panels she had tested from the Australian market was a panel that produced 12 per cent less electricity than its advertised rating.
“[That] raises questions then about what that panel’s going to do after one year, or three or five years, let alone 25 years in the field,” she said.
Dr McCann said some overseas manufacturers were sending poor-quality solar products to Australia, knowing they would not be checked.
“What we can conclude is that in some cases, unfortunately they know that we are not really checking the quality of what is coming into Australia always, and there are a lot of companies out there … some of them are cutting corners where they can to make extra money.”
She said Australia does not have a rigorous culture of testing imported solar products.
“When there’s no expectation that your product will be checked, then there’s a little bit more flexibility … to ship out the poorer-performing product that inevitably results from any production line.
“Australian consumers are notorious, and known overseas, for caring a lot about price and not caring about quality, and when that happens you get the cheaper product. And the cheaper product is not the better-performing product.”
The acting commander of Fire Investigation and Analysis at Melbourne’s Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), Steve Attard, says homes can be destroyed in fires that have been caused by rooftop solar systems.
“People are losing their homes, and a lot of the homes, by the time we get to the scene of the fire, the fire travel has destroyed at least the roof compartment,” he told 7.30.
“We always see the worst-case scenario.”
He knows of 25 fires in the Melbourne metropolitan area in the past five years that were started by problems with rooftop solar.
He said there is a particular issue with one safety measure that was introduced in Victoria in 2005, and then nationally in 2012.
It is a switch called a DC isolator that can be installed on roofs to shut off the flow of power from solar panels.
“Most people aren’t aware these isolators do exist up on the roof until there is an issue, and these are the ones we’re being cautious about because they’re exposed to the elements,” Mr Attard said.
“Moisture does get inside, even if they’re installed correctly. We have condensation building up inside these units and getting into the electrics and then giving us grief.”
He said fires in these units can spread across roofs before anyone notices.
“Certain brands have been recalled, but there’s still a number of the old isolators still out in service, which at some point in time will pose a risk.”
Low-quality solar no problem, Clean Energy Council says
One of the renewable energy industry’s peak bodies, the Clean Energy Council (CEC), has the power to accredit rooftop solar products and installers.
Last year the CEC cancelled its accreditation of 12 installers and temporarily suspended the accreditation of 160 more.
It also struck more than 5,500 models of solar panel from its list of approved products, along with 88 models of solar inverter.
CEC chief executive Kane Thornton insists low-quality solar is not a problem in Australia.
“I think what we’ve got here is a minimum standard that ensures a minimum level of quality for these systems,” he told 7.30.
“I don’t think it’s up to government to dictate exactly which product an Australian consumer might prefer.”
Mr Thornton said the overwhelming majority of rooftop solar systems are safe, and an “unsafe” rating from the CER may not be as bad as it sounds.
“This categorisation is about potentially unsafe systems,” he said.
The ANAO found that the number of rooftop solar systems classified as “unsafe” has declined from an average of 4.2 per cent from 2011 to 2015, to 2.7 per cent last year.
Mr Thornton told 7.30 the regulatory framework for rooftop solar products and installations is working, because the number of systems categorised as unsafe is continuing to fall.
“We’re obviously very focussed on continuing to reduce that number,” he said.
He said the solar industry is one of the most heavily scrutinised in the country.
“We’ve got 2 million households with rooftop solar and very, very few actual incidents relating to safety within the industry.
“There’s more work to be done. I don’t think anyone disputes that.”
Some of the problems emerging in rooftop solar are the result of a massive growth in demand, fuelled by government subsidies.
But there is a chance Australia could repeat some of the same mistakes with the next boom in home energy — household batteries.
The National Audit Office found some of the risks of batteries include electric shock, gas explosion, fire, and chemical exposure.
About 60,000 home batteries have already been installed, but there is still no agreed Australian Standard setting out the minimum safety requirements for their installation.
An updated Australian Standard is expected to be released in August this year.
The CEC has accredited about 950 installers to work with home batteries and Mr Thornton said home batteries are fundamentally very safe.
“We need to remember that these types of batteries have been used in cars for many years. They’re also not dissimilar to the batteries that are in many people’s homes in the form of cordless power tools,” he said.
Renewable energy certificates not cancelled if system fails
One of the big selling points of rooftop solar is the government incentives that reduce the cost of the systems for consumers, and form the basis for the national trade in carbon abatement.
When a householder installs solar panels, a renewable energy certificate known as an STC can be created, which assumes the panel will produce clean energy for 12 years.
The certificate can be bought by a polluting company to offset its carbon emissions, and contribute towards Australia’s renewable energy target.
But if the solar panels fail after just a few years, the certificate can still be used to offset emissions.
And that still counts towards Australia’s renewable energy target.
This market for renewable energy, from rooftop solar, as well as wind and solar farms, is worth $1.5 billion a year and rising.
The CER, which looks after this market, says there is no provision under the current laws for STCs to be cancelled if a system fails early, and its expectation is that the system would be repaired or parts replaced.
The CER also says the STC credits for rooftop solar are calculated conservatively, so that “if a small number fail and are not repaired, it is immaterial across all the systems that have received certificates”.
The ANAO audit found the CER had administered Australia’s renewable energy target effectively — except for the enforcement activities of its investigations unit.
As part of its four main recommendations, the audit said the CER should examine the electrical safety risks posed by rooftop solar more closely.
The CER accepted those recommendations, but it told 7.30 it was an economic regulator and not primarily responsible for rooftop solar safety.
That job falls to the state and territory electrical safety authorities, who receive notifications from the CER when systems are not up to scratch.
But 7.30 found some parts of Australia have far more comprehensive checks than others.
Authorities in Tasmania, the ACT and Victoria inspect every system that is installed.
The Northern Territory also runs its own inspection regime. Inspectors in the NT have checked 295 rooftop solar systems in the past 12 months.
Queensland authorities told 7.30 solar installers with a history of substandard work are targeted for audits.
New South Wales authorities said they rely on notifications from the Clean Energy Regulator, and that a targeted compliance program for solar installations is under development.
Authorities in South Australia, where almost a third of homes now have rooftop solar, could not provide any information to 7.30 by deadline.
In south-west WA, where the state-owned company Western Power is responsible for rooftop solar inspections, almost 10,000 checks have been carried out in the past 18 months.
Horizon Power, which services rural and remote WA, was unable to confirm whether it runs an inspections regime independently of the CER, and was unable to provide 7.30 with any figures by deadline.
7.30 understands that several state authorities have become increasingly dissatisfied with the CER’s regime of testing, and are planning to expand their own checks of rooftop solar systems.
The CER provided a statement to 7.30, saying it is required by law to inspect a statistically significant number of rooftop solar systems (about 5,500) over a two-year period.
“There has been an overall downward trend in the level of unsafe systems installed since the inspection program commenced.”
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Chinese electric car company BYD Co, in which Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holds a stake of 25 per cent, has signed a deal with an Adelaide-based group to produce an electric car for the Australian market from late 2020.
BYD Co has signed a memorandum of understanding with EVANT to produce three different right-hand-drive passenger vehicles, including a mid-sized sports utility vehicle and a large SUV.
EVANT is backed by investment fund Fusion Capital and transport group Nexport.
Fusion is a large investor in Brabham Automotive, which is separately building the $1.8 million Brabham BT62 supercars in a northern Adelaide factory under the leadership of David Brabham. Mr Brabham’s father was the late three-time Formula One world champion Sir Jack Brabham, who was dominant in the sport in the early 1960s.
EVANT director Christian Reynolds, a former Tesla engineer who was an operations executive for the United States electric vehicle pioneer led by Elon Musk earlier in his career, said the eventual plan was to manufacture the vehicles in Adelaide.
But the initial production would happen in China, with those vehicles then brought to Adelaide for modifications and upgrades for the local market.
“We’ve been on this journey for three years,” Mr Reynolds said.
He said the new electric car would be sold under a new brand, which would be unveiled in the next couple of months. “It will be a new brand to the Australian market,” he said.
Mr Reynolds said it would be pitched at the premium end of the vehicle market because of the advanced technology and quality build and would have a range of up to 650 kilometres between charges.
“We’re looking at the premium space.” But he emphasised the price tag would be ”dramatically below” the prices at which Tesla models sold for in Australia.
The BYD Co and EVANT tie-up comes as British billionaire Sanjeev Guptaaims to become the first commercial electric vehicle manufacturer in Australia.
Mr Gupta, whose GFG Alliance has been working closely with the UK’s Gordon Murray Design for the past 18 months on its electric vehicle strategy, is in the final stages of deciding which prototype vehicles it will use to launch into the Australian marketplace.
Mr Gupta said on April 29 he aimed to have a production run of between 10,000 and 20,000 in Australia and was leaning toward a ”smart car” for metropolitan users.
Gordon Murray Design is based in Shalford near Surrey in the UK and specialises in low-volume production runs, utilising lightweight materials and technology used in Formula One cars. Mr Murray is a former McLaren Racing technical director.
One of Fusion Capital’s directors is Mat Fitch, owner of Precision Components, a big supplier of automotive components to Holden when it was a vehicle maker in Australia. Precision Components has been diversifying since car manufacturing ended in Australia after Ford, Holden and Toyota all shut their plants in 2016 and 2017.
BYD Co is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
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