The Victoria Labor government has unveiled a plan to dramatically expand the installation of rooftop solar in the state, pledging $1.2 billion in rebates and no-interest loans for more than 650,000 homes.
The announcement by Daniel Andrews – coming three months ahead of a state election and amid energy policy turmoil in the federal arena – will aim to install an extra 2.6 gigawatts of rooftop solar, accelerating what most people in the industry as the inevitable switch to distributed generation.
It also comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission urged both the federal National and Liberal parties to abolish federal rebates for rooftop solar by 2021, as part of a 56-point package designed to address the gouging to energy consumers by networks, retailers and generators.
That proposal from the ACCC has been endorsed by the likes of Origin Energy, but Andrews says the government funding boost to solar will enable more consumers to escape the price gouging by the big energy retailers.
“Labor will put the power back in your hands,” Andrews says in a video accompanying the twee. “You will pay nothing up front you will get half the cost for free” and the rest can be paid back over four years under interest free loans.
“The big energy companies won’t like this one bit,” Andrews says in his tweet.
The program is designed around 4kW systems, and rebates will be set at a cap of $2,250 with the remainder available for homes with incomes for up to $180,000 combined income able to borrow the remainder interest free with a four-year payback.
Andrews is pitching this as a fight between consumers and big energy companies, and on the disastrous results of privatisation – under previous Liberal state governments.
“We will keep the profits out of the pockets of big energy CEOs,” Andrews says, adding that households could save nearly $900 a year through the scheme.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on August 22, 2018 11:12 am
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