THE Rudd government’s $480 million “national solar schools” program was quietly suspended yesterday afternoon via a notice posted on the popular scheme’s website.

“The National Solar Schools Program has been suspended to any new claims in 2009-10. This suspension takes effect as of 3:00pm 15 October 2009,” the notice said.

A spokesman for Environment Minister Peter Garrett, who did not formally announce the program’s closure, said 1300 schools had been approved under the program last year and 500 had already been approved this financial year, with another 700 “still in the pipeline for assessment”.

Those 700 would be funded if eligible, and additional money made available if required.

But no more applications will now be considered until next financial year.

Announcing the program in July 2008, Mr Garrett said “the Rudd Labor government wants every Australian school — primary, secondary, public and private — to have the opportunity to become a ‘solar school’ and the commencement of this half-a-billion dollar program delivers on our election commitment.”

“… Industry too will benefit from the program from the $480 million federal funding injection, creating increased demand for large solar power systems for school roofs,” Mr Garrett said at the time.

The suspension is the latest in a series of changes and cuts to government solar programs, including the introduction of a means test on the household solar panel rebate and the ending of the remote solar program.

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said it was “amazing that this government can waste $16billion on unwanted school halls but suspend a key solar program that every school appears to want”.

The program has already hit implementation hurdles with NSW’s centralised tendering process meaning no school had installed panels more than a year after the program started, and many schools running into problems hooking their panels into the power grid.

Mr Garrett’s spokesman said the Department of the Environment would contact every school registered under the program as well as those with applications on hand to advise of the suspension until next year.

Under the program schools were eligible for up to $50,000 to install solar power systems, or energy efficiency spending on items such as lighting, fans or awnings. Rainwater tanks, small wind turbines, small hydro power generators and skylights were also eligible.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26216449-11949,00.html

TAXPAYERS will be stumped with a $440 million bill for the Rudd government’s wildly popular solar panel rebate scheme which was abruptly terminated earlier this year following higher-than-expected demand.

About 64,000 applications for the $8000 rebate were in the pipeline when Environment Minister Peter Garrett terminated the scheme, which the government had agreed to honour.

Yesterday, Mr Garrett’s office revealed 55,000 of those applications had been approved, potentially at a total cost of $440m.

The figure is well in excess of the $271m set aside at the last budget to fund the scheme to June 30.

Mr Garrett said yesterday notifications to successful claimants would go out this week.

He defended the scheme, which he said was part of an “unprecedented” investment in solar energy by the government.

“Despite the claims and misinformation of the opposition spokesman, this government has funded over 11 times the number of systems funded in eight years of this program under the previous government,” he said.

“We expect that the availability of solar credits will continue to drive a sustainable solar industry into the future.”

Opposition environment spokesman Greg Hunt said the scheme had created a “boom-bust” mentality within the industry.

“It’s another example of the government, and Mr Garrett in particular, having no management control of their systems.”

He said: “They didn’t understand the program, they didn’t manage the program. They’ve cancelled it abruptly leaving everyone in confusion.”

The $8000 rebate was introduced by the Howard government. The Rudd government means-tested it after taking office in 2007.

Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said that in paying out the claims the government had honoured its election promise.

“It did have a transformational effect on solar, which is now much cheaper as a result of the scheme,” he said.

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26180700-5013871,00.html

Fri, September 25, 2009

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson has said the Federal Government will focus on the development of large scale solar power projects, but does not intend to support a national feed-in tariff system.

Opening the Clean Energy Council’s Solar Flagships Forum in Brisbane, Minister Ferguson addressed clean energy industry experts about the Federal Government’s $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program.

“It is the Government’s view that we must move beyond the debate about photovolataic on individual household roofs and look at solar being deployed, at a large scale, and integrated into the electricity grid.”

Mr Ferguson said that the Solar Flagships program would fund a number of large-scale solar power stations. He added that the provision of dependable power to the grid would be important for the delivery of these projects, because intermittent supplies could not guarantee energy security.

He also said that the Government had decided to use the expanded Renewable Energy Target (RET) as the key policy for encouraging new investment in renewable energy generation, rather than a national feed-in tariff.

“I know there are some who talk about feed-in tariffs as providing the solution to ensure greater deployment of solar. Feed-in tariffs are not the solution some make them out to be. In contrast to a technologically-prescriptive and ideologically-based feed-in tariff, the RET is a market based mechanism that does not favour specific technologies.”

Mr Ferguson said that while the Government wants solar energy to succeed, it would not solely back solar at the expense of other renewable technologies.

Boston Consulting Group has been engaged by the Government to undertake a market study and develop a business model. Guidelines for program applicants are expected to be issued by the end of 2009.

The Government intends to work with the Australian Solar Institute, which was established in early 2009 through the allocation of $100 million from the Federal Government’s Energy Innovation Fund.

Mr Ferguson also mentioned the changes announced in May to the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Demonstration Program, which resulted in solar applicants no longer being eligible for the program. He said that solar applicants can instead participate in the Solar Flagships program or apply for funding from the newly established the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy.

Source: http://ecogeneration.com.au/news/federal_government_targets_large_scale_solar/008111/