In a blog on 7 October I forecast that the NSW government would have to cut the 60c tariff they had set on solar panel systems on people's houses. And indeed today they have done so, effective midnight yesterday!
To put it nicely, this will throw the solar industry into turmoil.
Just as with the sudden cancellation of the Federal government's much reviled home insulation program, this sudden brake on solar panels is going to hurt a lot of people who have invested in the equipment and supplies involved in the scheme. With the home insulation, many entrepreneurs had stockpiled warehouses full of batts, and were left with unsellable stock. Now, solar panel stockists are going to be left with warehouses full of unsellable panels. And part of that problem is that the cost of panels is going down all the time, so those stocks will become increasingly unsellable.
Given the hazards associated with the insulation scheme one can sympathise with the decision to make an immediate cut. But this decision about solar panels could surely have been done a bit more sympethetically, perhaps phasing down the 60c tariff progressively? But most importantly the NSW government should never have allowed the 60c tariff to apply in perpetuity! In yesterday's announcement they confirm the high tariff will continue to be paid, apparently indefinitely!
It just seems strange that a scheme reported in the papers as being so obviously flawed was allowed to continue for nearly a month without any transition phase, and is now suddenly dropped.
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