QLD stemming solar subsidy
The Queensland Government is looking at tightening the rules on how households with solar panels use and sell excess energy.
New laws have been proposed that would mean consumers on the Solar Bonus Scheme can no longer feed energy into the grid while taking power from their battery.
It would also ban households from “oversizing”, installing additional batteries so that they can supply energy to the premises as well as the grid.
Queensland Energy Minister Mark Bailey said support for battery storage should not come at the expense of people without solar.
“You can either use your solar PV [solar photovoltaic systems] to generate power for your property, or you can use the power coming from your battery,” he said.
“You can't do both at the one time.
“When the Solar Bonus Scheme was first established, new technologies like batteries were not a consideration.”
Currently, a third of Queensland households have solar, with early adopters still enjoying a generous 44 cents per kilowatt-hour (c/kWh) for their extra supplies.
Without the proposed changes, the scheme would cost about $5.1 billion in ten years’ time, Mr Bailey said.
The changes, if passed, will apply immediately so that people on the solar bonus scheme cannot increase their generation capacity before the laws are passed.
The state's electricity distributors will police the amendments.
The bill will be debated later this year.