I had the opportunity to attend the NSW Solar & Renewable Energy Summit held at the University of Newcastle last Friday. The Minister for Resources and Energy, the Hon Chris Hartcher, invited the solar industry, political representatives, experts in energy policy, advocates for renewables and the public to listen to constructive panel sessions on the issue.
It reinforced in my mind the challenges the solar industry faces in making an affordable, efficient, environmentally worthwhile contribution to our energy grid. A number of speakers outlined the escalating power consumption in NSW and the problem of short-term peak load. I also wasn’t aware of the demands the feed-in supply of solar generated power makes on our grid. It seems a lot of the system is not suitable for feed-in and has to be upgraded to accommodate a use of the grid that it wasn’t designed for. Who pays?
I was disappointed to hear from the floor of the summit and in the workshop I attended, the main argument the Solar industry continues to rely on is the “the Solar subsidy should be continued because it is a relatively minor subsidy and about 5000 jobs are at stake”. The additional subsidy is of course now around $1.4 Billion. Does the Solar industry also think it makes sense to subsidise retail jobs, or mining jobs, or geothermal jobs? Can it make the case that loading up the energy bills of 3.1 million households by even a small amount is fair to those who couldn’t or chose not to participate in Solar schemes?
The message for me from the Summit is that, if we get our energy policy wrong, we risk power interruption; a handicapped economy; a lower standard of living and a society where some people can access subsidised power at the expense of the majority. I hope the solar industry survives and prospers (like all renewables) but only when they can stand on they own merits.
Hon Scot MacDonald MLC,
Guyra NSW
