Victoria also to suffer reduction in feed-in-tariff
The state of Victoria’s premium feed-in tariff will be phased out through an interim programme, which will commence once Victoria meets its current capacity cap of 100MW.
This is according to the plan of Australia’s Clean Energy Council and Department of Primary Industry.
The interim scheme will reportedly be similar in structure to the one currently in place, but with a lowered incentive for new connections – system owners are currently paid AU$0.60 for every kWh of surplus electricity pumped back into the mains grid.
Victoria is the latest state to have its solar subsidy scheme overhauled; in the last three months three states – Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia and South Australia – have either made reductions to or closed their FiT programmes.
The CEC and DPI have claimed the introduction of an interim scheme is a “fairer” way to wean Victoria off state subsidies. A final decision on the FiT programme will not be made for a few more weeks.