By Staff Writer

The New South Wales Government’s scheme to reward households for the solar energy they produce has been hailed as one of the most generous solar feed-in tarriffs in the country.

Premier Nathan Rees said the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme would deliver the most generous payments to families in the country.

“A gross scheme is based on the total solar energy produced in your home rather than payments based only on what you don’t use,” Mr Rees said.

“These changes will see an average family paid around $1496 a year.

“That’s a 62 per cent increase on the previous scheme and means households can pay off their investment in solar panels in around eight years.”

Households with solar panels will receive 60 cents per kilowatt hour, with an average household system projected to annually generate 2500 kWh.

The scheme will include a 10kW cap on the size of the home solar system.

The Alternative Technology Association (ATA) said the NSW scheme was one of Australia’s most progressive payment system for household solar power.

According the ATA, the feed-in tariff recognised that solar households can make a significant contribution to reducing national greenhouse gas emissions, irrespective of whether the electricity generated was used in the home or fed into the grid.

ATA energy policy manager, Damien Moyse, called on the Federal Government to include emission savings from solar households in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.

“With a significant amount of additional investment in small-scale solar likely under this scheme, we now look to the Rudd Labor Government to ensure that the emissions saved by each of these new solar installations is accounted for under his CPRS,” Mr Moyse said.

“We also call on the Federal Government to assist this process and harmonise the nation’s feed-in tariffs to a single, gross feed-in tariff scheme that will make conversion to solar simpler for installers, households and electricity retailers.”