Big news today is the very disappointing announcement by Minister Combet to bring forward the reduction of the Solar Multiplier by 6 months to January 1st 2013.
It appears that the minister has collapsed under the relentless political pressure to “do something” about the price of electricity and yet again, has targeted the lowest common denominator – the PV industry.
FWIW, I had previously discussed the potential for bringing forward this change, but obviously had been advocating for far more than 6 weeks notice. This move just creates the opportunity for mistakes, forces everyone to rush and creates a mini boom then an amplified slump; not helpful at all.
Given that the Climate Change Authority is mid RET review, and its own modelling demonstrates that the RET has an impact of less than 2% on the price of electricity this is clearly a politically motivated maneuver. It is unlikely to have any meaningful (downward) impact on electricity prices at all and will just spoil Christmas for the Nation’s 4000 or so installers.
As usual the devil is in the detail and so after several calls to Government here is the detail in plain English:
For those customers WITHOUT any contract up until 16th November 2012:
- To get a 2X multiplier the system must be INSTALLED prior to December 31st 2012 and you must meet the Clean Energy Regulators definition of “electrical completion” and all other eligibility requirements
- This means you can still take orders at the 2X rate but BE WARNED; if you miss the date or fail to meet ALL requirements, you will move to the 1 x rate.
- Obviously you will need to meet all other eligibility requirements
For those customers WITH a contract agreed to prior to 16th November 2012
- To get a 2X multiplier the system must be INSTALLED prior to June 30th 2013 and you must meet the Clean Energy Regulators definition of “electrical completion”
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