MEDIA RELEASE

Saturday 10 November 2007

One million solar rooftops for Australia

ASF, Investa, RFI logosThe Australian Conservation Foundation, Investa Property Group and RF Industries have joined together to call on both major parties to support a national ‘feed-in tariff’ to put solar  photovoltaic (PV) panels on one million Australian rooftops in 15 years, saving 4 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions and creating thousands of jobs. 

ACF executive director Don Henry said: “We should stop wasting the abundance of sunshine that falls on Australian rooftops.  If we are to secure a clean, safe energy future for our kids, it is vital we have a solar feed-in tariff alongside a strong renewable energy target.”

Craig Roussac, Investa Property Group’s General Manager, Sustainability, Safety & Environment, said: “Solar PV produces peak clean reliable energy, so from our perspective it makes sense that it should be priced at a premium rate.  We see solar PV as a technology for the future we would incorporate it into our projects if we could get a commercial return on our investment.” 

A feed-in tariff allows households and businesses with solar panels on their roofs to sell solar energy back into the electricity grid and be paid a premium price for it.  This premium price reflects the value of the electricity produced at the time of peak demand and corrects the market failure of paying today’s solar PV owners only a fraction of the peak price.

Steve Jaques of RF Industries, Australia’s biggest solar panel distributor, said: “A strong feed-in tariff would inject significant growth into the industry and enable us to get economies of scale by allowing us to install solar PV across not only residential rooftops but also large distribution centres, shopping centre rooftops and factories.”

A solar PV feed-in tariff would reduce the payback time on a small residential system to less than 10 years and would significantly improve commercial investment in solar.

 

ACF, Investa Property Group and RF Industries are calling for all political parties to:

  • Establish a nationally consistent solar feed-in tariff for residential and commercial sectors
  • Aim for solar PV on one million Australian solar rooftops by 2022.

Internationally, grid-connected solar PV is the fastest growing power generation sector.  Germany, Japan, Spain and France are big consumers of solar PV.   All these countries have feed-in tariffs to support their solar industries.
Modelling verified by the University of NSW shows a national feed-in tariff would result in more than 3 gigawatts of solar power installed in 15 years, involving approximately 1 million roof tops and costing the equivalent of a cup of coffee per year, per resident.

 

Contact: Josh Meadows, ACF media adviser, 03 9345 1109 or 0439 342 992

Note to editors

ACF

Australia’s leading environment group, the Australian Conservation Foundation, is committed to achieve a healthy environment for all Australians.  We work with the community, business and government to protect, restore and sustain our environment.

Investa Property Group

Investa is a fully integrated property company and one of the largest unlisted owners of commercial property in Australia. Investa is a world leader in sustainability and, up until its delisting upon becoming a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley Real Estate in early September, was rated number one on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index in both the real estate sector and the financial services super-sector. In December 2006 Citigroup rated Investa the equally best placed company on the ASX100 to withstand the future impact of climate change and the Group was one of only three Australian companies included in the Global 100 list of sustainable corporations announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2007.

RF Industries

For more than two decades RF Industries has been Australia’s leading distributor of renewable energy products, as well as representing major companies in the DC and AC power markets.  RFI also supports clients throughout rural and regional Australia through the Power Partners dealer program – the largest dealer network of its kind in the Australian renewable energy market.