\u201cMore than ever solar makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
These were the words uttered by Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) boss John Grimes to reporters this week, reacting to the storm created by the NSW Auditor General\u2019s report on the state\u2019s disastrous solar bonus scheme. And his words were like an oasis in the desert of recriminations for the true solar believer in NSW folks.<\/p>\n
To put the comments in context though, in a week which our former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd would describe as a \u201cblame game\u201d over solar here in NSW. Mr Grimes said his organisation stood ready to help the NSW Government with advice following the Auditor General Peter Achterstraat\u2019s scathing report on the Solar Bonus Scheme.<\/p>\n
Mr Achterstraat found the scheme, where households participating in the scheme received 60c per kilowatt hour generated by their solar panels, to be mismanaged, even suggesting cowboy status by saying the scheme would have cost taxpayers around $4 billion, an estimated eleven times the original estimate<\/em>, had it been allowed to run its planned course.<\/p>\n “The Scheme lacked the most elementary operational controls, had no overall plan and risks were poorly managed,” he said.<\/p>\n Former Energy Minister and now Leader of the Opposition John Robertson has been backpedalling this week over this role during the worst of the cost blowout of the scheme. In true \u201cbearpit\u201d (NSW Parliament) tradition, Robbo stood tall \u2026 and tried to blame someone else.<\/p>\n ”It was on the basis of this advice that Labor proceeded with the 60\u00a2 Solar Bonus Scheme – with support from the Liberals, Nationals and Greens on the floor of the Parliament,” he said.<\/p>\n AuSES\u2019 John Grimes tried valiantly to raise the tone of the debate with the society\u2019s press release suggesting that, instead of the present government slinging mud at the now Opposition members responsible for the mismanagement of the bonus scheme, it should \u201cdemonstrate clean energy leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n Fat chance.<\/p>\n The NSW Government spent most of this week gleefully sinking the slipper into the Opposition Leader\u2019s credentials as a financial manager following his role in the solar bonus scheme blowout. Most prominent was the acting Energy Minister, Duncan Gay, who said the report\u2019s findings ”disqualifies [Mr Robertson] from ever being premier of this state with his hands on Treasury”.<\/p>\n Nice.<\/p>\n Any positives in all this? Back to Mr Grimes. While admitting that the NSW scheme was \u201cpoorly designed\u201d he said this was not the fault of the NSW solar industry nor the state\u2019s residents. He went on to call for fair government support for solar consumers looking to contribute to Australia\u2019s renewable energy future.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than ever, solar makes sense,\u201d Grimes said. \u201cGovernments should be providing a fair price for solar to allow Australians to make their own contribution to the clean energy future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cMore than ever solar makes sense.\u201d These were the words uttered by Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) boss John Grimes to reporters this week, reacting to the storm created by the NSW Auditor General\u2019s report on the state\u2019s disastrous solar bonus scheme. And his words were like an oasis in the desert of recriminations for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[30,55],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solar-policy","tag-feed-in-tariffs","tag-nsw","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n