Victoria Solar Panel Maximum Capacity

The solar panel industry has been booming thanks to the solar power incentives offered by the government. As we have seen recently though these can be subject to change with very little warning! Weekly Times Now reported that Victoria has already installed 70 megawatts of solar panels of the 100 megawatts total electricity generation capacity currently allowed under the state’s feed-in tariff.



So it’s likely that a legislated cap on its development will be implemented in Victoria once the solar panels installation generation capacity has reached 100mW, which is expected to happen by the end of the year. The Energy Minister, Michael O’Brien, will then have the right to terminate or extend the current lucrative 60 cent-a-kilowatts net feed-in tariff on solar power which came into effect 18 months ago. There are now thousands of solar panels installers across the state because of the solar boom that face an uncertain future once the cap is reached.



Jill Baker, the manager from Central Victorian Ecosmart Solar, said that the solar panel industry and its clients will need to have assurance from the Victorian government about what was going to happen before the cap was reached. A statement from Australian Solar Energy Society chief executive John Grimes said that the industry had already suffered in a huge swing from the past demands; the result from the chopped and changed solar feed-in tariff policies.



Mr. Grimes quoted that "We’d urge the Victorian Government to telegraph well before hand its intentions, rather than turning the industry on and off with the flick of the policy switch." Victoria should follow the ACT government’s example of an annual review of the tariff that has four to five months notice of any changes that will be made.



It was Energy Minister Michael O’Brien who made the decision to put a future cap on the tariff once the installation cap is reached. The Victorian government minister is allowed to terminate the feed-in-tariff once the average cost per customer of consumed electricity per year arising out of operation of the premium solar feed-in tariff scheme is $10 or more. The Department of Primary Industries will monitor the progress of this scheme.



It was promised by the Coalition Key to support the feed-in tariff and then direct the Victorian completion and Efficiency Commission to investigate the implementing market based gross of the feed-in tariff scheme and the rest of the bonuses being implemented.