Changes to Solar Incentives 2011
Solar Credits - RECs Multiplier to be phased out early
RET Changes to SRET and LRET
Set Price for RECS
Premium Feed in Tariff
Solar Credits - RECs Multiplier to be phased out early: Under the Solar Credits incentive, the number of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) issued on for the first 1.5kW of panels installed, receives a multiplier of 5. Systems installed after June 30th 2011 will only receive a multiplier of 4. This will result in around a $1200 drop in the incentive given from government. The change was announced in December by The Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Greg Combet and brought forward the phase out of Solar Credits by 12 months. The Government will continue to reduce the multiplier until 2014 by 1 each year. see solar credits FAQ or amendments
RET Changes to SRET and LRET As of the 1st January 2011 new legislation on the Federal Government's Renewable Energy Target (RET) came into place. The RET is now split into two parts the LRET & SRET. The LRET covers large scale renewables like wind and bioenergy, with the SRET covering small scale generation like small scale solar and SHW.
Set Price for RECS Under the SRET people may sell their RECS for a set price of $40 per certificate if accessed through the clearing house, setup by the office of the renewable regulator (Note that this may require the system to be paid for upfront) Alternatively RECs can be traded elsewhere with a current market rate of around $34, up from $25
See about the RET for more info.
Premium Feed in Tariff The Victorian Government's Net Premium Feed in Tariff (PFIT) is still in effect where people can access $0.60c+ per/kWhr for excess electricity exported to the grid until 2024. Note that there is a 100MW cap on the number of systems that can access this scheme. It is estimated that there could be around 12 months of installations left until this cap is reached.
More info at Victoria's Feed in Tariffs