The ACT has become the fourth jurisdiction in a month to slash its support for household rooftop solar systems, announcing the overnight closure of its generous feed-in tariff scheme to new entrants.
Environment Minister Simon Corbell announced yesterday that from midnight on Tuesday residents who wanted to fit their homes with solar panels would no longer receive the legislated 45.7c per kilowatt hour for power generated by their systems.
Early last month, the federal government announced it would scale back its solar credits scheme — for the second time in six months — from July, effectively reducing the average rebate to households installing a 1.5KW photovoltaic system by thousands of dollars.
In the weeks that followed, Western Australia and NSW also dramatically cut subsidies.
Under feed-in tariffs, home owners with photovoltaic power are paid a premium rate for electricity generated by those panels that is fed into the grid. But the costs of the premium rate are passed on through higher bills for all other customers.
