Reports have started coming in that the Queensland Government has slashed the Solar Bonus despite pre-election promises to the contrary.
Energy Minister Mark McArdle announced the backflip today citing rising costs as the cause, saying if it remained unchanged at $0.44c “it would cost every household $54 a year by 2014/15, costing Queensland about $1.8 billion by 2028″
Customers and industry have until midnight on July 9th to lodge an Inverter Energy System connection application with an electricity network distributor and “will be assessed against eligibility criteria for the existing scheme and, if deemed eligible, would receive the 44¢ per kilowatt hour feed-in tariff rate”
The Government says existing customers will continue to receive the current $0.44¢ kWh FIT as long as they continue to meet eligibility criteria.
However, Minister McArdle also said that they have planned changes to legislation that will change eligibility for those who connected under the $0.44c kWh scheme – if it isn’t installed by June 30, 2013 or the name of the account holder changed (eg in the case of a property sale)
The Brisbane times have a story on this here and the fact sheet is here
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