The Property Council has welcomed today’s move by the NSW Government to embrace a Gross Feed-in-Tariff but urged it to adopt a model that encourages broad-scale investment in renewable energy.
"The Property Council has consistently favoured a gross scheme that will deliver substantial growth in renewable energy use," NSW Deputy Executive Director Glenn Byres said today.
"The decision to move from a net scheme to a gross scheme will no doubt be welcomed by households and accelerate the take-up of solar panels.
"It establishes a clear investment incentive for households.
"However, the decision to limit the scheme’s scope risks undermining the sensible objective of giving NSW a substantial competitive advantage in renewable energy.
"The commercial property sector has been effectively excluded from the scheme with the imposition of a cap of 10kW.
"This means no real incentives are available to office buildings, shopping centres, industrial parks, tourist accommodation and other commercial properties.
"It also potentially leaves the owners corporations for strata schemes outside the eligibility criteria.
"If you are interested in saving the planet, it shouldn’t matter whether a solar panel sits on the roof of a home or the roof of a commercial property.
"Commercial properties have the capacity to drive broad-scale investment in renewable energy if the scheme is framed to enhance commercial viability.
"There is also no sound basis for excluding technologies other than solar – such as wind, cogeneration and trigeneration."
Mr Byres said the Property Council is currently preparing a submission on the Government’s plan to develop a clean energy policy that helps NSW meet the national 20% renewable energy target.
"The clean energy policy paper should be used to resolve outstanding issues that would broaden the criteria and create an investment regime that advances our embrace of renewable energy," Mr Byres said
Media contact: Glenn Byres, NSW Deputy Executive Director on 02 9033 1907 or 0419 695 435.
