NSW's got me boiling mad about solar
What was the NSW State government thinking when it announced it was cutting the solar feed-in tariff from 60c to 20c, effective immediately? The announcement was all about how it was costing too much in power bills, but did anybody stop to model the immediate economic, social and political effects of slashing an industry support scheme by two thirds overnight with no prior warning?
Our state government is very ready to support all kinds of other industries, such as the racing and gaming industry, that have no net positive benefit and significant detrimental social impacts. It has no problem sinking hundreds of millions of dollars of support into easily the most inefficient and environmentally harmful energy generation industry we could have in NSW short of burning old car tyres to generate electricity.
The NSW government's decision had nothing to do with deciding that household solar was the wrong strategy, or they would have axed the feed-in tariff. It was just frantic, poorly-thought through, panicked decision-making-on-the-run from a party desperately trying not to lose an upcoming election and unable to risk any bad publicity over cost blowouts on a solar scheme that's grown too fast.
If they weren't scared and they actually did give a damn they could have just as easily announced that the tariff would be phased down gradually to 20c over the next four years. Installers could have used those four years to adapt, to do some consolidation and acquisitions, to get more efficient. Manufacturers could have used that time to continue to bring costs down and optimised supply chains. Consumers could have decided for themselves whether to act sooner or later with the full information at hand. There would be time for consultation, for accurate modelling of the impacts and the results, for further tweaks to be made.
It's the home insulation scheme all over again, thankfully without any fatalities but all the other collateral damage. No solar manufacturer is ever going to risk entering the NSW market for a very long time, and no investor is going to get into backing manufacture, distribution or sale of household solar either.
One thing's for sure, household solar generation better NOT be the best solution for the state of NSW's future power needs, because the current state government has made damn sure it will not be an option ever again.
