Australias peak solar power body fears Queenslands electricity companies are trying to put people off installing new solar systems. The Australian Solar Council has criticised moves by Ergon and Energex to encourage new customers to install smaller solar systems that do not feed electricity back into the power grid. Ergon and Energex said the changes, which included new rules about installing systems that feed-in power, would help them manage the detrimental impact of solar on their power networks. These new rules will help avoid many of the costs associated with upgrading Ergons network to cope with increasing numbers of these systems - costs that are ultimately borne by all electricity customers, Ergon chief executive Ian McLeod said. In some cases, customers have their applications to install PV (photovoltaic) systems on constrained sections of the network downsized, unless they are prepared to pay for an upgrade to the network. The new standards potentially give them another option of installing a PV system of their preferred size that does not export power back into the grid. Do you have solar power and does it work well for your household? Share your story. But John Grimes from the Australian Solar Council said he believed the power companies were trying to limit solar uptake. Theres a very small number of instances where there are technical issues caused by solar uptake, but they are a tiny fraction of a per cent, Mr Grimes said. Instead of dealing with the technical issues that arise, theyre using a sledgehammer to try and block solar from the grid altogether. The uptake of solar energy in Australia, particularly in Queensland, has been huge over the past five years. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said solar generation output rose by 58 per cent to 2,700 gigawatt hours (GWh), equal to about 1.3 per cent of electricity consumption, in 2012-13. Renewable energy advocates say Australias generation capacity is now 3.4 gigawatts, of which 1.1 gigawatts is in Queensland. They also believe any moves by energy companies to limit the growth of solar will lead to so-called grid defections, where people install solar and batteries and disconnect from the network. By trying to stop people from using solar, the unintended consequence is that people are more likely to go solar and leave the grid much quicker than they otherwise would have, Mr Grimes said. ...... The ABS said only 0.2 per cent of Australian households were not connected to mains power. One of those belongs to renewable energy advocate Doone Wyborn, who disconnected from the power grid two years ago when he and his partner moved to a rural property in northern New South Wales. Batteries are the biggest problem but the solar panels themselves have come down so much in price over the last few years that in many cases youre better off having a solar system, even if youre living in the city, he said. Our solar system can easily cope with all the energy requirements of a relatively efficient house, a small one, in fact weve got more than we need from the system that we have. abc.net.au/news/2014-07-08/qld-providers-trying-to-block-solar-from-grid-groups-says/5579874 VETO (Veto Energex Towers Organisation) Logan Albert Conservation Association Dr Scott Thomson, Queensland Greens
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 00:09:32 +0000