Boosting CF with Solar Power from IPs

zepth said:
From what I understand of the legislation in most states you have to actually be living in the property to claim the feed in tariff making this not really viable.

Even if you keep the bill in your name if you are found out for living elsewhere you could get in some serious trouble and be required to pay your tariff back since the states are offering the tariffs as an incentive to people to bring down power use in their ppor.

At best you can hope to get a higher rental rate in the same way other luxuries such as aircon, dishwasher etc attract a higher rent but I would not count on it being enough to justify the cost of installing
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Not true at least in the ACT.

The purpose of offering higher tariff rates is to provide incentives for "householders", "businesses", "public and private" or "all electricity customers" excepting non-educational government institutions, and definitely not limited to just owner-resident, to install solar systems and hence help the state achieve its target of kWs electrical power produced by greener electrical systems.

Read: http://www.environment.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/144608/FiTFactSheet.pdf

Some extracts: "The ACT electricity feed-in tariff scheme rewards households and businesses that install renewable energy generation technology." "The Scheme is available to all ACT electricity customers (except non-educational Government agencies) with generation facilities of no greater capacity than 30kW. All schools and educational institutions, both public and private, are eligible to access the Scheme. If you are renting, you will need the permission of the property owner before you can install renewable generation equipment."

In fact in the ACT the rewards for installing solar systems are in two subcategories: residential and commercial. The target allocation of installed kW for residential solar systems has been fully subscribed and closed to new comers. The commercial system may still be opened.
 
Last time I looked at solar (3 years ago), my calculations showed it would take 10 years to break even. By then, the panels would probably require maintenance or replacement making it a totally useless exercise.

Has anything changed to make it more financially attractive?
 
peastman said:
Last time I looked at solar (3 years ago), my calculations showed it would take 10 years to break even. By then, the panels would probably require maintenance or replacement making it a totally useless exercise.

Has anything changed to make it more financially attractive?
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At this price I believe it will be paid back around 4-5 years at the current electricity price,some others are charging 12k+ for the premium system so shop around.You can get Chinese systems cheaper but I am not into cheap.

Queensland (I believe) is the only state still offering that high 50 cent buy back rate.If you sign now that price will remain until 2028.

Electricity is going to keep going up and soon we will all have huge bills every quarter.Its not going to go down,supposed to have risen 40+% in the last three years and expected to rise up to 11% every year from now on.
 
Francesco said:
Not true at least in the ACT.

Read: http://www.environment.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/144608/FiTFactSheet.pdf

Some extracts: "The ACT electricity feed-in tariff scheme rewards households and businesses that install renewable energy generation technology." "The Scheme is available to all ACT electricity customers (except non-educational Government agencies) with generation facilities of no greater capacity than 30kW. All schools and educational institutions, both public and private, are eligible to access the Scheme. If you are renting, you will need the permission of the property owner before you can install renewable generation equipment."
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In the same document it also states "What do I need to do?
You need to occupy a property in the ACT and install an approved form of renewable generation"

Probably worth checking with the authorities if they require you to live in the same address in the ACT or just ANY address in the ACT
 
zepth said:
In the same document it also states "What do I need to do?
You need to occupy a property in the ACT and install an approved form of renewable generation"

Probably worth checking with the authorities if they require you to live in the same address in the ACT or just ANY address in the ACT
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The meaning of "occupy a property in the ACT" essentially means that you should have 'control and access' over a property's electricity consumption that is in the ACT in the context of the factsheet. For efficient administration of the new solar grid feed-in system, ACTEWAGL operates a billing system that incorporates and manages the new concessional feedback tariff to the same person who settles the electricity bill. The factsheet itself implies that even tenants (ownership of the property is not important) can initiate installation of the solar system in bilateral arrangement with the landlord. The subcategory commercial systems in fact opens opportunity for anyone through collaborative arrangements (residentship in ACT is not important) to participate in installing larger green systems in the ACT.

Anyway, I have checked with the ACTEWAGL before entering into any arrangements. The solar systems I have are all operating satisfactorily.
 
Is the capital cost being quoted a figure for "supply" or "supply and fully installed" ??

What depreciation rate are you applying - if any ??

What interest rate of opportunity cost are you applying on the capital as a risk free cost free comparison ??

Any time I do these calculations, the capital cost of the system blows the exercise right out of the water.

The whole shebang is a negative return compared with the risk free benchmark. The long term in-built technological redundancy of today's units being produced is a threat also.

We own a decent amount of roof space. If there was even a sniff of a real dollar to be made out of this, they'd be covered. They aren't.

At this stage, this novelty is in the "feel good ethical greenie bin". Economically it doesn't stack up to rigorous scrutiny and comparison to other investments that your capital could be applied to.
 
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Well given that residential landlords are used to 3-4% net yields I am not surprised that putting in solar panels could be seen as a 'good investment'. However, those who actually try to make money know that for 3% RoI I might as well stick it in the term deposit. Next....
 
Dazz said:
We own a decent amount of roof space. If there was even a sniff of a real dollar to be made out of this, they'd be covered. They aren't.
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This is why I am hanging out for the commercial tariffs to be announced.

Residential solar is all about payback period, whereas commercial should be about return on investment.
 
Ergophobia said:
This is why I am hanging out for the commercial tariffs to be announced.

Residential solar is all about payback period, whereas commercial should be about return on investment.
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i thought RoC (return OF capital) was just as importants as ROC (Return On Capital).....?
 
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