Via Twitter:

@timashebrooke: Class action against NSW Govt Solar feed-in tariff. Call Slater & Gordon on 1800 555 777 to register your interest.

Pru Goward in Hansard, 27 October 2010:

It is a shocking mismanagement, but we all accept and understand that the 60¢ [feed-in] tariff must be halted for new applicants. We also understand that all existing participants must have their existing agreements honoured. This side of politics particularly understands the importance of retrospectivity. I want to be very clear on this point: A future O’Farrell-Stoner Government, a Liberal-Nationals Government, will also honour those agreements. This fiasco is not the fault of the participants who looked at an unbelievably good thing, figured that it was too good to be true, and it was. But who can blame them for rushing in to join a scheme that was so generous that it would repay their investment in 2½ years? It is hard to find another investment in this post global financial crisis world that can do that. The fiasco is not their fault. They did what they were expected to do, which was respond to a price incentive. It is, in fact, the fault of the Keneally Labor Government, which should hang its head in shame. It is difficult to imagine a greater and more terrible mismanagement of other people’s money. We do not oppose the bill.

(bold emphasis mine. -Ed.)

If the NSW solar feed-in tariff is cut from 60c/kWh to 40c/kWh from 1/7/11 to 1/7/16, this represents a loss of $2192 over those 5 years for owners of 1.5kW (6kWh/day average) solar generation systems.

Be lucky you do not live in USA . Solar panels setup will cost around $21,000 us for a small 800 sq. ft. home in California .

And it would take 15 to 20 years to break even .

If i could buy a complete Solar instalation for Under $3,000 fully installed i would do it in a minuet as long as it produced all the Electricity that i will ever need in my small
home .

My installation was subsidised by the transfer of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to the company that installed it. If I paid for the thing out of pocket, my 8 panels would have been about $925/ea ($7400) and the inverter about $1500, a total of about $8900.

This system is nowhere near big enough to run this household. We use about 21kWh/day for domestic power (aside from water heat). My system makes about 8kWh/day in summer, about 3.5kWh/day in winter, on ideal, cloudless days.

The system is useful really only for grid feed-in. There’s no batteries- and that’s a good thing. Batteries are consumables and very expensive to replace every few years.

However, if push comes to shove with our power prices (now close to 20c/kWh), it may be worthwhile to install batteries and a charger in place of the grid-connect inverter and install a suitable 3-4kW inverter for 240V mains power substitution.

I am a self funded retiree, not very rich but proud that I am able to live on my savings unlike many of my pension friends who believe it is their right to rip of the State. I am not saying the person in question is a rotter but, he certainly is quite astute in financial matters and he does not appear the type who is hard pressed to pay grocery bill.
I missed out on the 60 cents a unit Solar Bonus scheme (SBS), came to know about it only after it closed down in October last year after 10 months of inception. However, I am installing a 1.5 kW system at the new 20 cents a unit SBS (also terminated recentlty). The system cost me aan oulay of $2000 and will generate about 6kWH average a day which roughly works out to $400 worth of power. That is 20% return on investment which is quite good. It baffles me to hear the winching of so many that the new 40 cents a unit SBS is inadequate especially the ‘poor’ pensioners! I suspect there is a sinister profit motive in the original scheme which was too generous, a sham and to be funded by other electricity users (non solar). It is a pity that the whole scheme is withdrawn now, not even the 20 cents a unit SBS, which is not fair to those late comers who want to do a bit for the environment.

Mathew, you fail to grasp the point of the argument mounted by the people incensed by the O’Farrell State government’s announcement to alter the feed-in-tariff (FiT) from 60c to 40c per kilowatt-hour (kWh). We signed on to a contract assuring us of 60c and it was stated as an election promise! This is a breach of contract by the O’Farrell government, plain and simple. How would the government respond to me if I dropped the monthly amount I am paying back to them by one third?

Mathew writes:

I am a self funded retiree, not very rich but proud that I am able to live on my savings unlike many of my pension friends who believe it is their right to rip of the State. I am not saying the person in question is a rotter but, he certainly is quite astute in financial matters and he does not appear the type who is hard pressed to pay grocery bill.

Mathew, where do I start with you? You’re prima facie not well educated judging from your poor spelling and grammar, but your failure to grasp a number of rather simple concepts as well as your ill-considered prejudices leads me inexorably to the conclusion that you’re a bit of a dolt. And you deign to give me advice? I am amused. Instead of commenting on blogs written by people with brains, perhaps you should stick to simple things you can understand fully, like Alan Jones, Ray Hadley and the odd bumper sticker with small words.

Let’s start from the start: I am a disabled pensioner because of complications from injuries sustained when I was hit by a drunk driver. I’m poor because I was not able to have a full working lifetime, through no fault of my own. Suffice it to say that ‘poor’ does not equal ‘stupid.’ I have two university degrees, neither of which were knocked out of my skull by the drunk. Yeah, I’m a smart cookie- and I am never going to apologise for having a big brain that works well. Sure, there’s people out there who like to advertise pride in their ignorance, but I’m not one of them.

I’m deeply offended by your defamatory insinuation that you believe that pensioners have a ‘right to rip off the state.’ Poverty is not a crime nor is it an indicator of a predisposition to criminal behaviour. I realise this is newsworthy to you, despite all your hard-earned education at Alan Jones University, but bear with me.

Australia is a wealthy country with an honourable social contract which places a value on supporting her citizens who become unable to work. There’s a good reason for that- and if I have to explain those reasons to you, I’d be wasting my breath on a person without the capacity to understand.

My under $1460/month income is well detailed on the Centrelink website, which I linked for your convenience in my post. Did you look? Yes- I DO have difficulty with grocery bills- and all the rest of them, for that matter.

Just as ‘poor’ does not always equal ‘stupid,’ ‘smart’ doesn’t always equal ‘wealthy.’

I missed out on the 60 cents a unit Solar Bonus scheme (SBS), came to know about it only after it closed down in October last year after 10 months of inception.

You clearly have access to the internet- can’t you be bothered to read the news? On 27 October 2010, when Keneally announced that the feed-in tariff was to be cut from 60c to 20c/kWh, I certainly did- and I acted quickly so that I could utilise the 60c/kWh offer while it lasted.

However, I am installing a 1.5 kW system at the new 20 cents a unit SBS (also terminated recentlty). The system cost me aan oulay of $2000 and will generate about 6kWH average a day which roughly works out to $400 worth of power. That is 20% return on investment which is quite good. It baffles me to hear the winching of so many that the new 40 cents a unit SBS is inadequate especially the ‘poor’ pensioners!

If you’re an investor, you’re certainly not a very good one. A system which produces an annualised average of 6kWh/day at 60c/kWh will produce $1314 per year in feed-in tariff income, repaying a $2000 investment in 1.52 years. At 20c/kWh, the FiT income is only $438 per year, stretching out the payback time to 4.56 years. If you borrowed money to install your system, the payback time is longer yet. Most banks are not going to lend you only $2000 if you require the repayments to be stretched out over 5 years.

As I said in my post, I have next to no disposable income. Anything I do must have a price tag suiting my income. The system I chose cost $2990 and was offered on a 2-year, interest-free loan basis, with repayments of $112 per month. If I was going to have a solar PV system, it had to pay for itself- or come very close to it. A 1.5kW system which can generate 6kWh/day, on a 60c/kWh tariff, will make $108/month worth of FiT income. Since the NSW Government was offering 60c/kWh and both sides of the aisle in the NSW Parliament agreed that the 60c rate should be guaranteed for the life of the scheme, through 2016, I believed it was safe to make this investment. I ponied up $299 for a down-payment and $300 for the gross FiT meter and installation.

I suspect there is a sinister profit motive in the original scheme which was too generous, a sham and to be funded by other electricity users (non solar).

Sinister profit motive? Who was profiting? I’m $4/month in the red at 60c/kWh. I’ll be $40/month in the red at 40c/kWh. And do you think that I am somehow responsible for the NSW Government offering 60c/kWh? I’m quite obviously not. I took advantage of the pricing incentive as offered by the government, no more, no less.

It was the NSW Government which decided that encouraging the installation of grid-connected solar PV was a political goal worth an investment on their part. All I did was take them up on their offer, which appeared to come with an ironclad, bipartisan guarantee.

While I think it’s nice that home rooftop PV systems will reduce some of the daytime demand on our coal-fired power stations, I’m definitely not wealthy enough to make financial sacrifices for the good of mankind. I’m doing it hard enough just trying to cover my ordinary living expenses.

It is a pity that the whole scheme is withdrawn now, not even the 20 cents a unit SBS, which is not fair to those late comers who want to do a bit for the environment.

20c/kWh is effectively a parity arrangement (domestic tariff is about 18.9c/kWh at this moment). If you’re wealthy and environmentally minded, you can still invest in a PV system and feel all good and gooey inside when the sun shines, while reducing your electricity costs somewhat.

I resent your insinuations that I’m somehow not poor, am greedy for an unearned profit, am a thief or that I believe anyone owes me a living. I’ll spare you my harsher language, but suffice it to say you had better leave your prejudices and ignorance behind if you come to my blog and try to cast aspersions, lay unfounded accusations or put your ignorance on display. You WILL be called out for it, Mathew- every single time.

Jeez, Weez,
I wish I had gotten you to compile my message to the MP’s