The Hon. Carmel Tebbutt,
Minister for Climate Change and the Environment.
Dear Ms Tebbutt,
I congratulate the NSW Government on its intention to introduce a solar feed-in tariff scheme. However if this scheme is to play its part in reducing the State's greenhouse emissions, it is critical that people be rewarded if they choose to invest thousands of dollars to actively make a difference to the State's greenhouse pollution levels by generating their own renewable energy.
I believe the foundation of the scheme should be a gross feed-in tariff, which would pay householders for all of the electricity they produce.
A net feed-in tariff will disadvantage households and businesses which use the electricity they produce during the day, and have little to export to the grid. In consequence, it will take much longer to recoup the cost of the initial solar installation, which is a disincentive.
Such a scheme would make a significant contribution to tackling climate change and would reduce NSW's dependence on coal-fired electricity. I understand that, compared with 1990, carbon emissions from NSW have risen 30%, which means that we all have a huge job ahead just to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions , much less meet the modest 5% cuts now proposed for 2020.
I urge your Government to give NSW citizens the best scheme possible so they can make their contribution to this enormous task.
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