NSW Opposition Leader To Pledge More Solar Power

Luke Foley To Promise Massive Increase In Rooftop Solar

In his budget reply speech today, Opposition leader Luke Foley will reportedly commit to a huge increase in rooftop solar power generation capacity in New South Wales.

The New South Wales Government’s Budget 2017-18 had nothing concerning solar power specifically. The single highlight of the Budget in relation to renewable energy was just $1.1 million to complete final actions in the Renewable Energy Action Plan.

It’s not as though there wasn’t a bit of spare cash kicking around, with Treasurer Dominic Perrottet calling the $12 billion worth of surpluses “the envy of the Western world“.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports Mr. Foley will  pledge a NSW Labor government will deliver a huge boost in solar electricity generation via the rooftops of government buildings; not just as a way to shore up energy security, but also to create jobs.

As in most other states, energy is a hot-button topic in New South Wales, particularly after recent announcements of substantial electricity price hikes. Households and small businesses in the state will be slugged with increases of between 16% and 19.9% from the Big Three (Origin, AGL and EnergyAustralia). NSW Budget 2017-18 notes $1 billion in energy rebates over four years to help address cost of living pressures.

Commenting on the increases, Mr. Foley said, “The Liberals promised that power prices would go down if they were allowed to privatise electricity. We now see the real truth.”

In a bit of good news we mentioned yesterday, solar feed in tariffs in look set to increase in New South Wales and across Australia – and substantially; making the case for going solar even more compelling. AGL has led the way, announcing it would boost retailer feed in tariffs in New South Wales 82%, from 6.1c to 11.1c per kilowatt hour exported from July 1.

No doubt the news will be well-received by the 364,000+ households and businesses with solar power systems in New South Wales. Queensland, South Australia and Victoria will see AGL feed-tariff increases of 77%, 140% and 126% respectively.

Utility Scale Energy Storage Push

SMH also reports the Opposition leader will call on the Government to immediately tender for 100 megawatts of energy storage to be installed and operational in time for summer. Mr. Foley believes inaction by the Berejiklian government means the state is  “staring down the barrel” of potential blackouts this summer.

In its recently published Energy Supply Outlook, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) says there’s a low risk of electricity shortfalls for an average summer in 2017/18 across the National Electricity Market (NEM), but it stresses the power system remains vulnerable to extreme conditions.