I have been saying for a long time now that the economic advantage to NSW from the Solar Bonus Scheme has never been put into perspective, especially in response to some of the outrageous negative claims made about the Solar Bonus Scheme, particularly from Barry O’Farrell and Tony Abbott. It appears that rather than being a drain on electricity bill payers, those of us who invested in our solar systems have saved the taxpayers of NSW a motza!
Check out this article extract from today’s Sydney Morning Herald, which puts the benefit into perspective: no need to build a new power station for many years as a result of the levelling of peak loads by use of solar electricity generation under the Solar Bonus Scheme:
Solar does NSW a power of good
Brian Robinsn
August 31, 2011
THE boom in solar panel installations coupled with higher electricity prices and energy efficiency measures has pushed back the likely need for new baseload electricity generation capacity in NSW until near the end of the decade.
The need for more baseload power, which operates 24 hours a day, has been steadily pushed back for several years now.
When trying to sell the power industry, the then premier Morris Iemma said a power supply shortfall would occur by 2013-14.nIn the annual Statement of Opportunities issued by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) today, that need has been pushed back to 2018-19, a further two-year delay since last year’s forecast.
A factor in the extended delay has been the 500 to 600 megawatts of solar panel capacity that is being installed following the state government’s generous feed-in tariff subsidy, which has now been curtailed.nAlso, higher electricity prices, energy efficiency programs and the slowdown in demand due to the global financial crisis and, more recently, the decline in manufacturing, have hit electricity demand forecasts for NSW.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/solar-does-nsw-a-power-of-good-20110830-1jk5l.html#ixzz1WZU9oTGs