More than 300MW from solar power installations have been installed since the Solar Credits support mechanism was introduced in Australia.
A rise in electricity price for consumers as the adoption of solar power in Australia has blossomed. Now Greg Combet, the Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency has reduced the Solar Credits support multiplier from 1 July 2011 to three. From 1 July 2012 will be reduced to two and from 1 July 2013 the effectively ending of the program support will be reduced to one.
The Solar Credits applies to the first 1.5 kilowatts (kW) of system capacity installed in Australia for systems connected to main electricity grids and up to 20kW of capacity for off grid systems.
“Strong demand for solar panels has continued, fueled by declining system costs, the strong Australian dollar and economy, as well as incentives such as Solar Credits and the State and Territory feed-in tariff schemes,” Combet said in a statement. “The generous support for solar panels has also contributed to a decline in the installation of solar hot water heaters. By taking this action the costs of the Small Scale Renewable Energy Scheme on electricity users are likely to be around half of what they otherwise would be in 2012, while at the same time still providing considerable support to households taking action on climate change,”
The subsidies for a typical solar power installation were previously around a $6,200 but would fall to only around a $1,200 in 2013 for a small 1.5kw solar power system. Under the subsidy, the number of solar power installations grew from 15,000 in 2008 to more than 120,000 last year.
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