Solar power costs blackout

Jim Armstrong, secretary manager of the Far North Coast Table Tennis Association, says it will take two years longer to recoup solar power costs if the State Government reduces pricing.

Jerad Williams

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IT’S just not table tennis.

Jim Armstrong put solar panels on the roof of the Far North Coast Table Tennis Association’s Goonellabah centre to save money and keep down the cost of memberships.

However, a State Government plan to slash the amount of money paid for electricity fed into the grid by solar systems would mean the association will have to wait more than two years longer than planned before its system breaks even.

Mr Armstrong is philosophical about the plan, noting it has yet to get through Parliament. Even if the plan makes it through both houses, the reduced price of 40 cents perkilowatt hour, down from 60 cents, still makes the system worthwhile.

The local solar industry is not so easygoing about it.

Rainbow Power Company director Paul O’Reilly said he feared the retrospective decision could effectively kill Australia’s solar industry by spooking investors who would no longer be able to trust the nation’s legislators.

“It’s a betrayal of trust,” Mr O’Reilly said.

“We entered agreements with customers based on what was inlegislation. Every day we make investment choices based on that. It would be like buying government bonds and then they change the price on those bonds.

“By changing the rules it means some people are left in the lurch and that they couldn’t make an informed decision (about installing solarpanels) to start with.”

Mr O’Reilly said some people had borrowed money or increased their mortgages to install solar panels based on the amount of money those systems would earn when putting power back into the grid, and he feared some of those would be hit hard if the plan went ahead.

The company was also planning a protest action to be held in Lismore tomorrow and asking Northern Rivers residents to join in.

The rally would start outside the Lismore City Library in Magellan Street at 11.30am.

Protesters would march up Magellan Street and then along Molesworth and Conway streets before stopping at Lismore MP Thomas George’s office.