IMPORTANT: Barnett changes game on solar owners

Dear Solar Owner/Valued Customer/[name],

You’re a proud solar user – one of more than 131,000 in Western Australia – who is cutting your power bills and generating clean, renewable energy for our great State.

As your partner in sunshine, we at {insert company name} firmly believe you shouldn’t be punished for doing the right thing. But we’re writing to you because just yesterday, WA Premier Colin Barnett announced changes that will affect all solar homes who invested in solar between mid 2010 and mid 2011.

The changes mean that all families who invested in solar in that period will have their feed-in tariff reduced from 40c to 20c per unit over the next year. This is an arbitrary and deeply unfair decision, targeting ordinary families - and a betrayal of trust from the WA government.

Our aim as your solar company/installer in is to help you not just in the early stages of going solar - but to protect your investment in an ongoing way. And that's why we are writing today to let you know what you can do in response tho this announcement.

We're teaming up with new independent solar consumer organisation Solar Citizens to coordinate a response from WA solar customers to Mr Barnett's decision. Solar Citizens have set up and online and will be coordinating other activities in coming days. Please sign this petition calling on Premier Barnett to immediately retract his decision, and forward to every solar owner you know.

As you will know, WA families invested their own hard earned money in solar. Many families carefully weighed up the cost of the solar system, the rate of the feed-in tariff, and how long it would take to pay it back. This decision is of great concern to those families and their effort to do the right thing.

We need to make sure Premier Barnett hears right now from WA’s tens of thousands of solar homes. Please sign the petition now.

Two years ago, the NSW government made a similar proposal to retrospectively change feed-in tariffs. There was such outrage amongst the thousands of NSW solar families they were forced to back down.

When you went solar you made a decision that is helping cut energy bills and clean up our energy. Let's not let the government punish the people who are doing the right thing, just to prop up their budget bottom line.

Thanks with determination,

[your name]