Feed me, feed me

I and the ikko team have just finished the fabulous Spring Cycle event in Sydney. Along thousands of other bike enthousiasts we rode from North Sydney across Sydney Harbour Bridge towards the Sydney's Inner West, following the foreshores of Parramatta river all the way to Olympic Park in Homebush. The route displayed us a great cross section of Inner-West Sydney's building styles from old Victorian cottage houses to new ultra-modern 12-storey appartment complexes. Baking in the beautiful spring sun I coulnd't help but looking at the roofs of these houses - which were 'just roofs'. [Sigh]

Well, what you'd expect to see in a roof you may ask? PV panels, I say. The amount of potential prime 'solar' real estate was massive. Unfortunatley I was too busy trying to keep up my speed and not to bump into anybody, so I couldn't do any scientific calculations along the route. However I probaly can count the panels I did manage to see with one hand's fingers - compared to the hundreds of houses we passed along the route. And this is a shame!

Germany along with over 40 countries and provices around the world have implemented a feed-in taffif system, which according to international studies( e.g. Mendonca. M (2007), Feed-in Tariffs: accelerating the deployment of renewable energy, Earthscan,
London United Kingdom) and which are proven to be the single most effective incentive to reduce the economic barrier and encourage the uptake of renewable energy
generation. Feed-in tariff means that the producer gets premium rate paid for electricity fed back into the grid from their renewable energy source (e.g. solar).

In Australia, a few states have implemented or are looking to implement feed-in tarrif legistlation, to encourage their residents to invest in renewable energy.

ACT Government has put forward an Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy
Premium) Bill 2008 where up to 10kWh will be paid at the premium rate, and anything over that a percentage of the premium rate. This act is yet to be implemented.

Victorian government has already in place a standard feed-in tarrif legistlation, and during 2009 a new premium tariff system will kick in. This premium feed-in tariff will be available for households with small-scale solar photovoltaic systems (up to 2 kilowatts). The premium rate is fixed at 60c per kilowatt hour, which is about four times higher than the standard retail rate consumers pay for electricity. So truly a proper 'carrot' to get people investing in renewable energy.

Similar systems are in place also in South Australia where from 1st July 2008 grid owners will need to pay a premium guaranteed tariff of $0.44 per unit of electricity (kilowatt-hour, kWh), to households and small customers who feed solar electricity into the grid. Plus in QLD.

And then back to NSW, and to those 'empty' roof tops. What do we have in place? Nothing, nada. Any plans? Nah. If you would like to change this, why not contact your local Member of Parliament to voice your opinion.

Fill in those rooftops with solar and feed the grid with renewable energy.