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Rooftop Solar Panels Could Earn NSW Inhabitants Up To $10,000 A Year

By on January 7, 2010 | RSS


new south wales solar panels 300x165 Rooftop Solar Panels Could Earn NSW Inhabitants Up To $10,000 A YearInstalling solar panels on your roof seems ok from one point of view. Getting money for your installed panels and trading the energy you get from them back to the grid is even better.

Following Germany, Spain and Italy’s example, the government of New South Wales, in Australia offers an incentive for all those who own solar panels on their roofs, paying businesses and community groups a premium rate of 60 c/KWh for the electricity they generate. There’s a limit, though: one can only have a maximum of 10 kW output from their solar installation.

Even so, the NSW government says that by using this maximized 10kW solar panel installation, the user could benefit around $10,000 a year! For the regular Joe, only $1,400 is estimated to be payed back (or exempted) to the user.

However, it appears that not all NSW electricity distributors are ready for the Solar Bonus Scheme’s gross feed in tariff.  According to information from the EnergyMatters web site and current as of mid-December, Integral customers’ meters can be reprogrammed and the gross feed in tariff will be offered from today. Integral customers need to apply for the gross feed in tariff and will need to pay one off fee of $275.

To boost their program, NSW taxes the used electricity with 19 c/KWh, while they pay those who feed the grid with 60 c/KWh, so it’s a good bargain for the moment. The same deal went in Germany, where producers have been paid three times the cost of a kilowatt, at first, and then two times the cost.

Still, the initial incentive could be taken as a help for those who invested in solar panels and as a help for solar panel manufacturers. So the final investment is still the state’s, but in a more elegant, frank and smart manner, which stimulated the entire market chain, from the user to the manufacturer.

So there are solutions to the energy crisis, but you need money to start them, as with almost any new profitable business. For developed states like Germany and Spain it isn’t a problem, but for poorer countries in Africa and some European ones, there has to be an external initiative to help them put up this kind of business.

[source: CleanTechnica/Energymatters]



Ovidiu has always been a fan of technology and Captain Planet. Unable to ignore the technical possibilities that exist nowadays, he started collecting and blogging about the most interesting news out there and saw that there were a lot of people interested in the same that stuff he was.

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4027 total comments so far. What's your opinion ?
3 comments
al loomis
al loomis

this ad is obsolete, and might attract a charge of fraud if not modified to reflect the current situation.now, put the price of the installation into a term deposit, pay the interest into your electricity bills. that will be 2 to 3 times more effective in reducing your electricity cost.or, buy a deep cycle battery, charge it during off peak, daytime pass thru voltage inverter to wall circuit. cheaper by far than solar panels, and you only pay for off peak power.

Ovidiu Sandru
Ovidiu Sandru

the article reflects the situation as of Jan 7, 2010. Yes, it may be obsolete, but so is the information that Michael Jackson is still alive.

JOhn Stevenson
JOhn Stevenson

I would really like a price to install approx 4KW to my Family home, could you assist RegardsJohn Stevenson 02 46580 122 041 235 0434

Tags: New South Wales, nsw government solar incentive, nsw gross feed-in tariff, nsw solar incentive, nsw solar refund, nsw sun panel incentive, solar panel, solar panel incentive