News Service from House Harris

NSW: NSW to introduce solar feed-in tariff

SYDNEY, Nov 24 AAP - NSW households generating solar power will be paid for surplus electricity they pump into the grid under a new state government scheme.

The Rees government next year will introduce a feed-in tariff to encourage people to take up solar power, paying for unused electricity householders put into the grid.

How much they will receive is yet to be worked out, but it could be up to 60 cents per kilowatt, or four times the price of conventional electricity, ABC Television has reported.

NSW Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt said the feed-in tariff would act as an incentive for those wanting to help tackle climate change.

"A feed-in tariff pays residents for electricity they put into the grid from rooftop solar panels," Ms Tebbutt said in a statement.

"A feed-in tariff makes solar panels more affordable because people are paid for the clean electricity they produce."

The tariff scheme also helps NSW meet its 20 per cent renewable energy target by 2020, she said.

"By 2020, 20 per cent of our electricity needs to be sourced from renewablesources," Ms Tebbutt told ABC Television.

"So, this is part of our solution to meeting that 20 per cent target."

A joint taskforce would be set up to iron out the details of the scheme, Energy Minister Ian Macdonald said.

"A taskforce will advise us on the range of issues to be addressed: the type of renewables available, emerging technologies, possible harmonisation with other states, and rates and implementation of tariffs," he said.

The taskforce would report back to government in January, with the scheme expected to be implemented by mid-2009.

The NSW scheme would be in line with anticipated guidelines to be announcedby the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), Mr Macdonald said.

Green groups support the scheme but say it should be broadened to include industry and community groups.

"Once the industries start to deploy hundreds of panels at a time, then we start moving down the cost curve a lot quicker and make solar panels a lot cheaper for everybody," Clean Energy Council spokeswoman Andrea Gaffney told the ABC.