Archive for July, 2009

An article in The Australian last week (23 July) reported the electricity industry is asking for up to $20 billion in extra government assistance. This is to avoid the impacts of the Federal Government’s proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). Somewhere the point has been lost that the ETS is meant to make the coal industry less viable.

We have been pondering what the solar sector could do with this vast amount of money if it were to manifest itself for our benefit.

For a start, $20 billion will buy around two million 1.5kW systems, not factoring in government subsidies, e.g. RECs or Solar Credits. Each system will pay for itself over 20 years (assuming there is a feed-in tariff in place). In other words the investment in each system is repaid at around $500 a year.

So, while the investment is being repaid it creates the ability of the solar industry to reinvest in even more solar systems.

If 400,000 dwellings a year were to have 1.5kW solar systems installed, at the end of 10 years they would cumulatively be generating 9,000 MWh. This is more than twice the energy generated by the large 1400 MW Tarong power station that powers much of Brisbane and emits 9.8 million tonnes of greenhouse gas a year in the process. As the average car produces 4.5 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, running Tarong is equivalent to running almost 2.2 million cars.

Unfortunately it is quite unrealistic for the solar industry to have the capacity to install 400,000 systems in the first year, however it could start smaller and ramp up. Think of the green jobs it would create.

What a great solar future it would be if these figures were not simply wishful thinking.