The rain held off, local shoppers were amused and we all had a laugh. It's not easy to control a round object that is taller than you! However, many hands made light work, especially with pumping it up. See photos in gallery.
The launch was well attended and the panel handled many probing questions. Thank you to Martin May, who told us about the Hepburn Wind Co-operative experience. He had many words of wisdom for us to learn from. Also, thank you to Bernie Hoefer who told us about what he saw in Europe on his tour of renewable energy sites there; also an interesting talk.
The venue at Burrinja Gallerywas changed to the cafe, which turned out to be a warm and friendly place and the night went long and many new share holders invested in this very exciting project.
The board and Ranges Energy subcommittee of DRREA are meeting regularly. Much has been achieved in the correct setting up of the Co-op and all the fine detail involved that must be attended to.
With so many helpers we easily reached the 500 surveys target. What a fantastic effort. We would like to think that we helped inform those considering the soon to be legislated renewable energy bill!
FEED IN TARIFF COMPLAINTS
If you have problems getting satisfactory answers from your energy company, contact the Energy and Water Ombudsman, your local MP, and the Minister for Energy.
The Moreland Energy Foundation is lobbying the State government, on behalf of customers, on the issue of changed rates for solar grid connect customers. They might be interested to hear from you.
FEED IN TARIFF - Comparison of Offers
The Moreland Energy Foundation has information on their website, comparing the feed in tariff rates of the different electricity retailers. It is well worth looking at. www.mefl.com.au Go to News from Dec. 2009.
ACT FEED IN TARIFF
To its credit, the ACT already has Australia’s only gross Feed-in Tariff. It has now announced it will also have a large scale gross Feed-in Tariff. This will give backers of large scale solar projects in the ACT a guaranteed return on their investment.
VICTORIAN FEED IN TARIFFS
Some electricity customers who have solar grid-connect systems have been charged very high rates for their daytime electricity usage, since they had a smart meter installed at their property.
This problem was highlighted in an article in the Age on October 6th 2010, ‘Anger flares over electricity charges for solar powered homes’.
At issue is the fact that some people with grid-connected solar power systems, are being charged up to 32 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity they buy between the times of 7 AM and 11 PM. Most households pay 17-19 cents. In effect these customers are paying more for electricity than other customers, despite the fact
that they are doing the most to flatten peak loads and to clean up electricity production.
The retail company cited in the Age was AGL. The solar customers faced much higher power bills since installing solar power because the company, using the new smart meters, had shifted them from the normal flat-rate tariffs to ‘time-of-use’ tariffs. With low off-peak rates (12c/kWh), but very high peak rates (32c/kWh 7AM-11PM), the benefit of the solar feed-in–tariff (60+c/kWh daytime) was then lost and their power bills had increased, rather than decreased. (Most grid-connect solar power systems are 1kW only.)
In March this year the government put a moratorium on time-of–use tariffs for non solar customers getting smart meters. This needs to be extended to solar grid-connect customers. There are more than 16,000 Victorian homes with solar power installations. To me this ‘time-of-use pricing’ for solar customers looks like a
crude attempt by retailers to recoup money paid out for the Feed-in Tariff. The government will need to fix this immediately or it will become a major disincentive for people to ‘go solar’.
SMART METERS
All Victorians began paying the Smart Meter fee in their electricity bills from 1st January 2010.
In Origin Energy bills the amount is clear because it is a separate fee. However, with other retail companies the amount is unclear because it is added to the service fee and just called ‘Service Fee’, ‘Supply Charge’ or something similar. It seems they want to hide this extra fee. Most of us don’t know how much we are paying, how long we’ll be paying it and what we are paying it for.
It is thought that we will be paying this fee with every bill from now on. However, it has been difficult to get confirmation of this. There seems no justification for this fee for the smart meters.
Before smart meters, when meter readers came to the property and read the meter, there was no ‘meter fee’. Now, (even though the meter still does not belong to the customer), they can read the meter without visiting the property, yet it is costing the customer this extra fee. Why?
CAN POWER PRICE RISES BE BLAMED ON CLIMATE CHANGE?
When we hear about electricity price increases in the media, the price increases are rarely explained. The public could be forgiven for assuming that it is because of action on climate change. A recent report by the Climate Institute called ‘Electricity prices-The facts,’ shows this is not the case. It says that electricity prices are
expected to rise 32% over the next 5 years because of a $42 billion investment in network infrastructure.
However, some additional price rises will result from action on climate change. For example, the 20% renewable energy target will increase prices by about 4% between 2010 and 2015. Personally, I think the $8 per household, per week cost of 100% renewable electricity by 2020, as outlined in the Beyond Zero Emissions
Stationary Energy Plan, is a much better deal. http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/greenenergy-not-reason-for-bill-hikes-20101007-169ev.html
BURNING FORESTS FOR ‘RENEWABLE ENERGY’
I have just read an article by Economist Judith Ajani of the ANU, called ‘Forests -Another Chance for Peace’. She has 30 years of forest industry research and policy experience and wrote the 2007 book ‘The Forest Wars’.
Ajani explains how the native hardwood forest industry is currently trying to reinvent itself. It is doing this because there is a glut of woodchips which are mainly coming from plantations. Also, 80% of sawn timber is now coming from softwood plantations.
With no demand for woodchips from our forests there is now a chance for peace between loggers and environmentalists. However, to create a new future for itself the forest industry now wants to make electricity by burning our forests. They will call it ‘renewable energy’ and thus be part of the government’s 20% renewable energy target.
(A loophole in the federal legislation means that burning native forest timber is eligible for the same Renewable Energy Certificates as the power generated from the sun and wind.)
There is much that could be said about the many flaws in this proposal. However, I would simply point out that we need our forests left in place to draw down atmospheric carbon. Burning them will add C02 to the atmosphere, not reduce it.
CONGRATULATIONS TO HEPBURN WIND - Community Owned and Managed
Hepburn Wind is a community cooperative where every member has an equal vote and where each member receives a share of the profits from the sale of their green electricity. The two turbines are expected to produce on average, more electricity than is used in all of Daylesford's homes. That's saving 12,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas annually, or 244 million black balloons. You can still buy shares. See http://www.hepburnwind.com.au/