The Greens are going to hate this. Newman has changed the generous incentives for installing solar panels and returning power to the electricity grid. New installations will receive a feed-back tariff of 8c down from 44c a kW/h. I’ve been warning all and sundry that this had to happen as it was simply unsustainable both economically and socially. Somebody has to pay the .44c and it falls on those who can’t afford to fill their roofs with solar panels – the poor and the battling Mum and Dad pensioners. Power companies have to balance their books and buying for .44c and selling for .22 ain’t going to cut it. However, all is not lost;

Mr McArdle said households that lodged an Inverter Energy System connection application by midnight on July 9 would still be eligible for the 44 cents per kW/h tariff.

Feed in Tariffs involve a subsidy, incurring costs that need to be recovered from higher electricity prices or the state budget. The NSW government, in their plan to rid the taxpayer of ALP/Earthian Green economic nightmare, tasked IPART with sorting out the problem and making recommendations to the government, They were :

…. asked IPART to recommend a ‘fair and reasonable’ value for a feed-in tariff for customers who export electricity to the grid but are not eligible for the Solar Bonus Scheme, and a mechanism to implement this value in NSW. However, it stipulated that our recommendations:  should not result in an increase in electricity prices in NSW, and  should not require funding from the NSW Government budget. In other words, any future feed-in tariff for these customers must be subsidy-free.

That is obviously where Newman is coming from as his new installation tariff of .8c a kW/h is similar to the IPART recommendation of 5.2 to 10.3 c/kWh. You can download the IPART report here For all the non-thinkers and Green Earthians railing at Newman for “the broken promise” they need to realize a couple of hard truths. 1. You should be yelling at Bligh, not Newman. She has left the state in such a parlous situation that hard decisions have to be made. By the 2015/16 financial year, almost 10 per cent, or $5.3 billion, of state revenue will be spent paying interest on Queensland’s $92 billion debt. The selfish pricks should realize that there are no free dinners. Someone always has to pay and it should be the individual, not the poor folk or the subsidized taxpayer. 2. The Earthian Greens Renewable Energy Program and Carbon Tax are already going to cost us dearly and are a part of the increasing utility bill. As ever is the case, any plan from these guys doesn’t have a “Law of unintended consequences” factored in – It is uncontrolled, millions doled out to Earthian Green church members without any guarantee of results other that ‘I feel good” Newman is obliged to try and balance the books and with the state debt sitting at $80b and rising something has to be done. All the ALP/Green plans never take costs into calculations – it is all just money to Giai – she deserves it more than us humans. But hey, Hippy, the rent always falls due. He is not actually cancelling Feed in Tariffs. If you have a current system, or have lodged your application by July 9 then you get .44c. It’s just new installations that will receive tariffs that don’t cost the poor folk or the state budget money. I have contracted to have solar put on my roof, not because I feel a need to save the planet, but simply because all the ALP/Green Earthian wacky plans are raising the cost of services for no benefit. I don’t want some poor bastard to subsidise my power bills and I don’t want it lumbered on an already financially troubled state.