Solar Panels, Perth Australia
By Jo Nova
The government plays Santa Claus, but poor people paid for the “free” electricity a long time ago
It’s a very socialist solution to a socialist problem. Having screwed the free market, the government has to take desperate measures to limit the damage being done by the solar death spiral. The more solar panels we install, the more expensive electricity gets, which forces more people to install solar panels, etc and so on until “poof” we turn into Zimbabwe.
Last year, Jeff Dimery, the head of Alinta claimed that the “the rooftop solar glut” was so bad, the renewables transition itself had stalled. The solar surge in Australia has destroyed the profit margin for reliable generators. But it also killed the business case for new solar installations, and wind turbine parks too. With the national market bleeding negative prices at lunchtime, most generators would have to pay real money if they generate at lunchtime, but the household solar owners don’t. This created the perverse incentive where the only escape for households from rising electricity prices was to put solar panels on the roof. We’re reached the point where two thirds of Australia was subsidizing the other third to buy solar power. Like a dragon that eats it’s own tail, it couldn’t go on forever.
Since solar panels were always subsidized, we know they were not economic to install. They were never really cheaper than mass coal fired power — not on a 24 hour system. So we’re added 4 million inefficient generators that wouldn’t have been installed without the subsidy, and we’ve paid the subsidy too. Now we’re putting bandaids on top of bandaids so we can pretend that it will get cheaper, maybe, one day.
“Free” electricity will slow solar sales, increase batteries, shift the load, and get more people on smartmeters
Within the confines of a crazy grid, it makes sense. It also makes the government look like heroes, until the people realize they were tricked.
The Labor Government wants to force the retailers to give some customers three free hours in the middle of the day. (Those with smartmeters, and in certain areas). They’re hoping:
1/ This will reduce new sales of rooftop solar panels. Fewer people will want to pay thousands to install solar panels when their best working hours are already free. This is good for a grid overflowing with energy at noon. It’s bad news though for solar panel installers, and will leave a nasty taste in the mouths of people who are still paying off their solar panels.
2/ It will increase battery sales. People who can charge their batteries free may find it appealing to sell electricity back to the grid at peak prices at 6pm, or to just avoid the evening price spikes themselves. This assumes that batteries are still subsidized, which means they still don’t make sense, and the country is still be getting poorer, but it will keep the Labor government out of hot water a bit longer.
3/ It will shift demand to noon (somewhat) to match the sun. Grid managers will be hoping that they can shift some demand from breakfast and dinner to the middle of the day. The new market intervention gives an incentive to people to spend hours figuring out how to rearrange their lives to match the “free” energy. It will help retirees who are at home and can do their washing and make their pot roast at lunchtime. But dual income families struggling to make ends meet won’t be home to use the free gift they paid for. It will take some effort to reprogram their hot water systems, and set their air conditioners and washing machines to run at noon while no one is home. They may not bother. It won’t help those who need to charge their electric car at night.
4/ It will increase the uptake of smart meters (not that people have much choice in that). But Big Government loves that control. It means they can turn off poor people’s air-conditioners on the hottest days of the year.
As an unwanted side effect retailers may have to charge more during the rest of the day. Like all government finagling, it will raise prices in ways the government didn’t see coming.
There is no free lunch — the poor already paid for a share in these solar panels
For years the unwashed masses have been quietly forced to pay for wealthier people to install solar panels in Australia. It was all so well disguised. Solar installers would sell panels below their real cost and then collect the SRES carbon credits as a rebate the cover the difference. But on the other end of that deal, electricity consumers paid for those carbon credits as an unlisted extra on top of their rapidly rising bills. This charge hit the poor who didn’t have solar panels harder than those who could afford them. It means, then that part of the cost of installation of solar panels was paid for by neighbors who got nothing in return.
Solar Panels Perth Australia
It makes sense in Renewable Crash Test Dummy Land
At the moment solar power is being wasted in the middle of the day, so this is an improvement in a system overloaded with generators that are supposed to make it rain in 2100 AD and which no one would have bought otherwise.
Right now, the government doesn’t want to tell Australians that don’t have solar that they can’t install it (“you missed the boat”). They don’t want to tell people with solar panels to pay back the subsidies and rebates to help reduce electricity prices (“We said it would be cheap, but it isn’t”).
The government needs a lot of batteries to keep the renewable fantasy alive a bit longer, but they can’t afford them, so they need some carrot-and-stick-tricks to get Australians to do it for them. Thus we arrive at the “three free hours of electricity” plan that was suddenly announced this week in a move that shocked the retailers.