Feed-in Tariff for WA

The Western Australian Government has finally joined other state and territory governments in implementing a feed-in tariff scheme to reward its resident for installing renewable energy power systems.

The long-awaited renewable energy 'net' feed-in tariff was announced as part of the government's 2010 budget, and will pay households 40c per kilowatt hour for electricity exported into the power grid.

However, the W.A Government's planned net metering strategy has been widely criticised by the Greens Party and environmental conservation groups, who say the net feed-in tariff system, as opposed to the gross feed-in system, will provide little incentive to householders to go green.

With a net scheme, only the excess power above that required by a household is paid for, while with a gross feed-in scheme, all the power generated by the renewable energy system is paid for.

Greens MLC Robin Chapple said the proposed net metering scheme was “meaningless” for the “well-meaning people” who would consider installing small generational units.

“The Minister [Peter Collier] today has made ludicrous claims about the payback period under his scheme, but unless householders have more solar panels than they actually need the payback period is simple - - never.” Minister Chapple said.

The New South Wales feed-in tariff scheme remains the most generous in the country, paying 60c per kilowatt hour [gross].