22 November 2007:

Adelaide: The Electricity (Feed-In Scheme - Residential Solar Systems) Bill 2007

It's nearly here..! In a unanimous decision by members in the South Australian Upper House, the original bill was amended and passed. Unfortunately, Lower House members have come to a standstill with a decision to be announced sometime in February 2008, one week before the "3rd International Solar Cities Congress 2008" in Adelaide.

This feed-in tariff will allow domestic customers and small business (less than 20 employees) who operate a small-scale grid-connected photovoltaic electricity system, to receive 44 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity fed back into the grid - twice the standard retail price. This feed-in scheme was amended from the original 5 year period to a fantastic 20 years.

Solar Shop Australia have been lobbying extremely hard over the last year to have this bill passed and feel very confident that Government will accept the amended changes and pass the bill.


Original Bill:

  * 44 cents per kWh – net exported electricity into the main grid

  * Feed-In Scheme to be implemented for a period of only 5 years

  * Available to residential users only and not small business

 
 Amended Bill:

* A return of 44 cents per kWh – net exported electricity into the main grid - for all homeowners and small business (less than 20 employees) who have a solar grid connect system.

* Implemented for a period of 20 years (until 2028) and not the original 5 years as initially suggested

* This feed-in scheme is in addition to the Federal Governments $8,000 Photovoltaic Rebate Scheme (PVRP)