Superior Solar NSW Solar Bonus Scheme Update
Friday 29th April 2011, Chris Hartcher the minister for Resources and Energy announced that as of midnight 28th April 2011 the government was placing the scheme on hold to all new applications. Chris Hartcher said the former government’s scheme was set to cost the government up to $1.9billion. He said that the scheme will be reviewed at stage one of the NSW governments solar summit to be held Friday 6 May 2011. Mr Hartcher announced that it would hold new applications for 2 months.
Derek Woods of Superior Solar said whilst the announcement today was a disappointment and another example of governments boom bust cycle for renewables, the end of the scheme was in site. He said, based on the state’s current installation rate, the 300MW installed capacity of the scheme is due to be hit in approximately 3 weeks time, which will see all installations under the scheme come to an end. He encourages the government and power companies to promptly look at the situation and implement a stable long term policy on supporting renewable energy in NSW. With a 2 month hold on applications and the installations under the scheme and looking like it will end in 3 weeks time it leaves the industry with a 5-6 week window of unknown.
We are waiting on clarification of the following two items
- The status of approved but not connected applications up until the 300MW cap. This may come from the Clean Energy Council this week or after the summit this Friday 6th May.
- The rate the utilities will pay for excess power fed back into the grid for new NET metering connections. When we may expect this information is unknown at this time.
At this point we do not have answers to these questions. We will inform everyone as soon as we have any updates. Please wait until we publish new information before calling our office with any questions.
Read the full 130511 NSW Govt announces closure of solar bonus scheme press release.