Electricity prices, solar power and cost benefits

A couple of articles have recently caught my eye. The weekend Financial Review article "Will the lights really go out?" by Angela Macdonald-Smith (Nov 27-28) argues that there is only a short window of time before the lack of investment in power generation has unfortunate effects - blackouts! "With or without a carbon price the bills are heading skywards". As someone who can't stand the heat, I've invested both in air conditioning and solar power so my electricity bills will probably increase. But if the lights go out (blackout) then so will my rooftop electricity generation capacity.
I'm one of the "lucky ones who have solar panels on their roofs" according to Macdonald-Smith a "technology that costs 10 times as much as other emission reduction initiatives!"
The recent review by Andrew Macintosh  on the Federal Governments Solar PV Rebate Program also questioned its cost effectiveness. It was interesting to read that "during the mid-2000s, BP Solar produced around 35 to 42 MW of PV cells and 8 to 12 MW of PV modules at a plant in Sydney. The cells were manufactured from imported wafers and most (roughly 80 per cent) were exported. Similarly, around 50 per cent of BP Solar’s modules were exported. In March 2009, BP Solar closed its Australian operations." Since all the wafers were imported it means the much vaunted target of manufacturing in Australia is a bit of a smokescreen.
The report concludes "The program was a major driver of a more than six-fold increase in PV generation
capacity and output in the 2000s" and "it is reasonable to assume that the PVRP-SHCP (solar scheme names) had some impact on community attitudes". It also concludes the rebate prior to the Rudd government created "uncertainty and lack of investment". Whilst the blow-out in costs under Rudd showed the program flaws.
Given that solar PV is costly it will be interesting to see if  major PV production increases by China plus further research will drive prices down enough to make PV affordable and cost effective without public subsidies. Then we can revisit the cost effectiveness debate.

Time of Use Electricity Tariff

The autumn-early winter electricity bill arrived recently. This one had an extra $109 for a "service truck" visit in June. On querying this item, it was as I suspected, a cost for the service visit when the meter changed over in January. It has taken 6 months for the distribution company to bill the retail company.
While talking to the helpful operator I queried the low solar buyback tariff and got switched to their solar division.
To my surprise, I found that there may be a way to receive Victoria's higher 60c buyback rate for my generated electricity as well as keeping the peak/off-peak rates. This is now called the Time-of-use tariff and the rates compare well with my current tariff.
So now I will try and navigate the maze of forms and possibly appeal processes to see if we can action this. It seems this change has occurred recently following confusion between distribution companies, smart-metering roll-out and possibly other factors.
So although my bill is less than at a similar time last year, showing the effect of the solar generation, the buyback increase will also affect the overall costing.
Anyone who lives in their own home, has a reasonable north-facing roof and a couple of thousand dollars spare would be well advised to go solar. The economics, with the current REC's system and increasing competition in the industry, is obvious.
So if you still have the $1800 bonus the government have given us, why not invest in your own solar generation system?

Solar Power and Solar Hot Water

Since getting my 1KWh Solar PV system installed late last year I have been watching how well it performs. We have reasonably ideal conditions for the system. North - NNW facing roof, high enough pitch to match the latitude and a light colour, thus hopefully providing cooler conditions on the very hot days.
So far the system has averaged 5KWh per day until very recently.
Lately the generation has started to fall off somewhat. On good days we were getting over 6KWh/day whereas now its struggling to reach the 4.5-5 area. As the equinox has just past and the hot weather is still continuing, conditions which reduce the solar gain, so we will have to see how the system goes in the later part of the year, when the spring equinox arrives in September.
It has also been quite cloudy so on these days we struggle to reach 2-3 KWh.

I am still awaiting my federal government rebate and also still awaiting my electricity bill. So far we seem to have put a reasonable amount of electricity back into the grid, enough to halve the electricity bill. But having a very warm summer also has meant more than usual use of air conditioning (easy since we didn't have it last  year!) so at least some of the watts and $$ generated have been used to keep us cool.
I am hoping my new meter is also set up to keep the off-peak tariff that we used to have before the installation of the solar power. Time will tell as to how efficient my electricity provider is in the billing side, and whether I can  figure the bill out!

Solar Power Rebate

Looks like my solar power rebate application is still under consideration! My provider has got back to me to say all is well and we should be hearing about it soon. Then hopefully we'll see some action.
My only concern is the changeover to a new electricity meter. We currently have a meter that gives an off peak tariff. It will be interesting to see how the new feed-in meter works, if we nmanage to save money, how much electricity we can feed back into the grid and if the Electricity provider does its billing correctly. Reading the "Renew" magazine encourages me to keep good records and check the bills thoroughly. I will also have to read the feed-in tariff info from the Victorian government thoroughly.
Hopefully the data will encourage the family to turn off the computers, radios and TV's when not in use.
Driving around my area I can see that many people are taking up the solar power rebate, so it is obvious many people are taking up the rebate and taking action on climate change ahead of any national scheme.

Heatwave and chaos

Melbourne's latest heatwave caused chaos in the city. Trains were cancelled, power went out throughout the city, people went crazy from the heat as well as the normal pressures of life.
We were exceedingly fortunate. With newly installed ceiling fans, closed blinds and wet T-shirts we were able to keep the house to an almost reasonable 31 degrees on the last 45 degree Celsius day.
My poor garden was not so lucky. Now the silver birch tree has dropped many of its leaves following a severe burn. Many other deciduous trees in the local streets are also brown and the drift of leaves in the hot winds adds to the feeling of extreme heat stress.
My water tanks are nearly empty after 30 odd days without rain. However, the tomatoes have survived (with sunburn) and also the sweet corn. So far the Camellias look okay but the Correa groundcover has nothing but crisped branchlets.

Oh I wish for the money to invest in photovoltaic panels to hook up to an air conditioner!!! Then we wouldn't have to worry so much about extreme heat and power blackouts. My house is designed to be more passive solar with eaves that keep the sun off the windows in summer.

A big cheer also to various emergency services people who were slaving in the heat to douse fires nearby, fix broken traffic lights (bad accident) and various other life saving events.

My Electricity Bill

Global meltown in credit markets. The Bush administration is bailing out private enterprise and mortgaging American taxpayers for years to come. On ABC TV's Q and A last night we saw Peter Costello talk about how much better the prudential regulation is in Australia. I remember reading, in the Financial Review I think, that when politicians tell you that the banking system is safe, then thats the time to be very careful with your money.
Lets hope the financial credit squeeze will not totally derail various governments attempts to do something about the environment and global warming. The only hope I had of any decent change process was if the governments and people of Australia were wealthy enough to manage the cost of the changes necessary.
Having just seen my electricity bill for the winter months I have seen an increased cost, and this is happening without any cost input due to carbon emissions trading.
And yet we see in the September 2008 Choice Magazine article "Solar panels: counting the real cost" how much further the electricity price must rise to make photovoltaics a real option for the average housholder like me. My house is well sited to provide excellent solar gain for a PV system but I can't afford it just yet. I have been waiting for 14 years so will have to wait another 10 or more I would imagine.
By that time my current solar hot water system will definitely need replacing.

However, many consumers also have the ability to mange their costs a bit (say no the that new DVD for example) and spend more on their utilities. So perhaps this credit squeeze and the increasing burden of debt on households might make some people think a bit more about their spending . Perhaps pushing them into more sustainable patterns. Here's hoping.