PDC: Solar tariff working group

This Working Group (WG) was established by the Policy Development Committee (PDC) on 23 January 2013.

Focus & Themes
This working group has been tasked with developing policy to prevent climate change and build renewable energy by developing a national standard on the feed-in tarriff for solar energy generation. The working group is chaired by Sam Kearns and will develop a draft proposal including detailed policy and polly tables to be presented at the February 6 PDC meeting.

Meeting Schedule
Meetings are transparent, open and accessible to all members. Please contact the PDC with any ideas should you not be able to attend, or if you are attending, please add them to the agenda linked below.


 * TBC on #ppau-pdc
 * Agenda: TBC

Current Deadlines
As per the motion passed by the PDC, the deadline for presentation to the Committee is 6 February 2013. This should include a Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) table and a recommendation to the Committee based on the research of the WG and should relay any member input given to the WG by the members of the Party.

Previous Minutes

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Draft Policy Statement
Australia has immense natural advantages as a source for renewable energy. It receives more solar radiation than any other continent, and has solar energy available in particularly high concentrations and over a very wide area. Despite this seemingly immense advantage, the International Energy Agency reports that Australia's share of the solar PV market has fallen from around 7 per cent in 1991 to 1 per cent in 2008.

This is due to simple out-performance by other nations on the policy front. Global solar take-up has proven to be highly responsive to policy, and Australia has paid a significant price for running a patchwork of questionable schemes across different states instead of instituting a truly effective nationwide solar policy. Nations such as Germany and Spain have implemented more effective policies and reaped the benefits of significant emissions cuts, falling power prices, and the presence of a vibrant and growing solar industry within their borders.

The time has come for Australia to get back in the game. The Pirate Party will seek to unify the current patchwork of state schemes, align them to global best practice, and build a system of power generation distributed across the community. Such a system would act to reduce Australia's vulnerability to spikes in fossil fuel prices, reduce emissions, reduce our collective dependence on electricity companies, and create a more robust power grid.

Accordingly, the Pirate Party will seek to implement the following measures:


 * Provide a single National Feed-in Tariff (NFT) to apply uniformly across all states and territories. We believe that the Federal Government should act through COAG to remove the burden of solar feed-in tariffs from the states. A single tariff applied uniformly by the Federal Government will provide a guaranteed and clear return for potential investors in solar energy, and will assist the solar industry by simplifying compliance and removing interstate variation.


 * Replace net-metering with gross metering. Net metering is an unpredictable measure which provides returns only on power exported to the grid after usage on the premises has been excluded. Gross metering provides a guaranteed return on all energy generated by a solar panel, and provides far more predictability and reliability. All successful global schemes utilize gross metering, but Australia continues to rely on net metering in several states.


 * Guarantee tariff rebates for a period of at least 10 years. This will ensure that the current state tendencies towards abrupt change and continual uncertainty will no longer undermine solar investment.


 * Offer tariffs to all sectors—not just households. Solar power offers a secondary income source and a way for businesses and community groups to buffer themselves against damaging and unforeseen movements in global fuel prices.


 * Institute guaranteed 'payback periods'. Currently, state and territory schemes are subject to frequent adjustment and revision, and a lack of overall coordination. We believe that the NFT should operate at around a 10-year payback period in line with global best practice. Access Economics estimates such a tariff would be initially set at around 74c/KWh, but would decline over time as investment in solar energy reduces costs, improves technology and allows Australia to take advantage of increasing economies of scale.


 * Adopt Australian Solar Council recommendations on improving solar industry best practice by strengthening the compliance regime, improving development and training for staff in the solar industry, and instituting a "trust mark" program to assist consumers in identifying companies who adopt best practices and peak standards.


 * Phase out subsidies to fossil fuel industries. The prospective rise in solar energy will reduce the need for damaging 'fracking' and coal seam gas projects.

Access Economics modelling suggests that an NFT aligned to global best practice can be expected to generate an additional 3,000 MW of capacity over twenty years, and reduce carbon emissions by more than 90 million tonnes. This is a highly conservative estimate—introduction of similar feed-in tariffs in Germany has driven expansion of solar capacity from under 100 MW to almost 18,000 MW in the space of 10 years.