With my recent electricity bill, came the wonderful information that the six solar panels I had installed on my roof 10 years ago (in the Rudd era) have brought me a ’buy-back’ amount in the last
Three months of $4.64!
If I consumed what is stated as the ’benchmark’ for a one-person household, this would amount to roughly 1% of my power bill.
My system, which still has a long way to go before it pays for itself, if it ever does, earns from my supplier a per-day sum of less than 1 cent per panel, and my retailer is currently buying my electricity for less than half of what it is providing it for.
So much for fair environmental incentive!
Sure the renewable source is good for the environment, and I don’t regret my purchase for that reason, but the set-up nowadays is the opposite of generous.
I feel well and truly gouged by power industry. If my experience is anything to go by, solar is not a one-way ticket to your electricity being free - or even cheap - unless you have a massive roof smothered in PV panels, and then incur the major expense of battery storage; thus allowing your household to have an off-the-grid existence.
The privatisation of electricity retailers, which years ago, thousands of union-sponsored signs throughout the state on telegraph poles warned would cost everyone dearly, has turned out just as predicted. And all so that the incumbent government could grab a bundle of quick cash.
The assurances and dependence on competition saving everyone from exploitation has proved hollow, as the present enquiry is predictably demonstrating.
Tony Martin, Mortdale
