The passing of landmark legislation in South Australia has made it the first state in the country to introduce solar feed-in tariffs.

The feed-in tariff offers 44 cents (twice the retail electricity rate) for every kilowatt hour of electricity which is fed back into the grid from solar PV systems.

South Australian Greens’ Mark Parnell proposed amendments to the bill including an extension from 5 to 20 years and the inclusion of small business and others (churches, schools, etc) up to 160MWh/annum.

Based on net metering, system owners are only credited for any excess fed into the grid rather than the entire production of their system, but the move is still regarded as a significant achievement.

“This is going to make a real positive difference to the uptake of solar panels in South Australia," Mr Parnell tole the Adelaide Advertiser.

 "The 20-year time frame will provide the guaranteed long-term security that the solar industry is after."