Feed-in Tariff to Help Make Canberra the Solar Capital

Minister for Energy, Simon Corbell, today released details of Stage 1 of the ACT's Electricity Feed-in Tariff Scheme for households and commercial buildings, confirming the scheme will start on March 1 2009.

"Last year the ACT Labor Government introduced the Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy Premium) Act, today I am announcing a series of amendments to the Act to clarify its operation and allow it to commence for households and commercial buildings on March 1 this year," Mr Corbell said.

Unlike other schemes in Australia, the scheme will pay people for each unit of renewable electricity produced, rather than the excess remaining after the producer's own consumption has been deducted.

"The ACT's Feed-in Tariff is the most generous in the country, the Labor Government is confident that this will lead to a major uptake in the installation of renewable energy generation on households and commercial buildings," Mr Corbell said.

"I am pleased to announce that renewable generators will be paid 50.05 cents per kilowatt hour exclusive of GST. This is 3.88 times the calculated normal cost of electricity."

The amendments will be introduced into the Legislative Assembly this Thursday, and the Government is confident they will passed to allow the scheme to commence on March 1.

The ACT Labor Government has decided to introduce the Feed-in Tariff scheme in 2 stages. Stage 1 will allow householders and commercial building owners with renewable energy generation of up to 30kw capacity to be eligible for the tariff. The average size installation for a household is around 1.5kw. At 30kw large commercial buildings such as shopping centres, office complexes and warehouses will also be eligible.

Stage 2 will allow for the introduction of the tariff for larger scale generation. There are a range of issues that will need to be considered before stage 2 can commence. The financial impact on ACT electricity consumers, the appropriate premium price percentage to apply to different scales of generation and the possible introduction of whole of scheme or annual augmentation limits all need to be considered.

"I anticipate that details of stage 2 will be announced in June this year, allowing Stage 2 to start from the original July 1 commencement date outlined in the Act," Mr Corbell said.

"With the introduction of the scheme Canberrans can become more involved in the process of reducing our greenhouse emissions and enable the ACT to become the solar energy capital of Australia.

"The ACT Government's climate change strategy, Weathering the Change, sets out our vision for responding to climate change, and this proposed feed-in tariff is a key part of that response.

"At the moment, the proposed scheme is focused on solar and wind technologies that develop renewable energy, but we have been careful to make sure it can be expanded to include new technologies as they emerge.

"The scheme has been developed following extensive consultation with a broad range of stakeholders in the ACT and I thank them for their valuable input."

For more information on the proposed Feed-in Tariff, visit http://www.act.gov.au/

Statement Ends/ 10th February 2009