The Newman Government has axed the 8 cent feed-in tariff, and as of July, 40,000 solar homes, and all future solar owners in Queensland, will have to negotiate directly with retailers to receive any return for the energy they provide into the grid.
In our recent meeting with Energy Minister Mark McArdle, he stated that because of high uptake of solar, retailers will have to offer a fair price for solar, as they will be be uncompetitive if they don’t. But, our experience with NSW, where families are receiving very small feed-in tariffs after negotiating with retailers, proves this otherwise. When pressed, Minister McArdle had no clear response as to how the Newman Government would guarantee that a fair price would be provided by retailers.
Although Minister McArdle had no answers on dealing with retailers, thanks to suggestions from many of you, we have a few options. We could continue to fight for fair legislated feed-in tariffs, or we could look into the option of bringing thousands of solar owners together to use our market power and negotiate a good deal with the energy retailers. Both options will use time and energy, so we'd like your thoughts on what the best use of our campaign resources. Let us know what you think below!
Showing 370 reactions
A: Investigate the possibility of stike action (organising every grid connected solar to go online at a minute notice on a hot sunny day to bring the grid down). It’s known that the infrastructure expansion as been slowed thanks to the uptake of solar, without the solar contribution the grid won’t be able to keep up.
A: Yes.
A: Yes, you should pursue bothe the ioptions of pushing the govt and collectively rallying against the retailers. This is not a one or the other question We need BOTH
A: Yes.
A: I Does anyone really know how much solar systems feed into the grid – I appreciate it will vary from day to day but even an order of magnitude value would be useful. Suspect there would be reluctance to tell from those that know … perhaps though as an alternative, how much installed solar capacity do we have?
A: No.
A: Maybe.
A: No.
A: No.
A: Aside from competition, energy retailers might take note if there were a viable alternative to the feed-in system. There’s an opportunity for an enterprise to create an off-grid storage system that would enable solar users to have maximum benefit of the power they produce and only rely on the grid for power excess to what they produce.
A: Yes.
A: Perhaps Solar Citizens could form a Company as a Power Retailer and possibly act as a “Not for Profit” organisation by returning profits to students or educational institutions for solar research and development.
A: No.
A: Maybe.
A: Yes.
A: Maybe.
A: No.
A: Yes.
A: Here in far north Queensland we have only one energy provider so there is no competition.
A legistated minimum feed-in tariff is needed.
A: I really liked this response: Gary Phillips answered 1 min ago
Q: Anything you want to tell us? Do you have any additional questions or concerns? Let us know here!
A: How about forming a new national retailer with a focus on Solar
I think that is the best way to go.
John Poxon
A: If we start to negotiate as a group, we need to have certainty that we will not be charged for the use of the network.
A: No.
A: Yes.
A: Maybe.
A: How about forming a new national retailer with a focus on Solar
A: Maybe.
A: Yes.
A: Maybe.
A: Instead of using solar citzcens time on this maybe u could interest a commercial interest to run this. They would get a cut from the retailer who people signed up to.