Solar benefit heats up debate


ALAN Moran displays either significant ignorance or deliberate deception in his opinion piece (BusinessDay, 10/7). In claiming solar electricity is the "least valuable" form of electricity, he misses or avoids several critical points.
First, the value of electricity in the national market is based on the time of generation, and how this matches demand.
Peak demand typically occurs during hot summer afternoons, at the very times when solar photovoltaic systems are producing their maximum output. Hence, solar power is worth significantly more to the network than is recognised, and the proposed Energy Legislation Amendment Act goes some way to tackling this.
Further, by being generated close to the point of consumption, rather than a power station, roof-top solar avoids the need for more poles and wires.
Fewer poles and wires over less distance means less transmission loss and significant savings to the customer.
It is the customer who pays for these networks in their bill, and with $24 billion committed to network augmentation in the next five years, it will be costly. Providing incentives for decentralised energy could avoid significant amounts of network investment.
Financial incentives in Germany — which installed 1000 times the solar capacity of Australia — is responsible for less than 3 per cent of the average electricity bill. Despite this extensive uptake of solar, as a response to the incentives, German electricity bills have fallen in the seven years since they were introduced due to the savings across the network.
It is also disingenuous for Moran to speak of subsidies for solar without mentioning coal subsidies. A University of Technology Sydney report puts fossil fuel subsidies at more than $9 billion a year. Renewable energy receives a little more than $325 million, or less than 3 per cent.
The greatest subsidy to coal energy is the lack of accounting for the environmental cost of greenhouse gas and other pollution.
With no existing mechanism for accounting the economic, social and environmental costs of climate change, renewable energy subsidies are the only practical way to allow clean forms of energy to compete with polluting fossil fuels.
Brad Shone, energy policymanager, Alternative Technology Association
Consider alternativesROSS Gittins' "… but parties close on climate change" article (BusinessDay, 10/7) implies there is little difference between Labor and Coalition policies. The major difference, which Gittins does not mention, is plans to generate power using nuclear sources.
Labor has no