So much for "Sunshine State"

Just when I thought the Queensland government was running out of the ways to attack renewable energy, they have announced the end of the 8 cent feed in tariff that householders get for each unit of solar energy they feed into the grid.

Of course, it's still quite a saving to produce solar energy to meet your own daytime needs. I wonder if this will spark a move to batteries, as solar owners look to store their own solar for night-time use also - and maybe even disconnect from the grid to avoid the ever-increasing fixed charge.

This was some of the reaction to the news:

Community group Solar Citizens, has more detail on the change - and a petition to stop this move.

The excuse for this is a 'projected' saving over the next 6 years. But spread across all electricity users, it's about $9 per household per year - or $2.29 off the quarterly bill. You could save more by installing one energy-saving light.

RenewEconomy points out that while the government gives the impression of being concerned about household bills, a much larger part of the electricity bill goes straight to the government's - as profits of the government-owned electricity distributors.

The same article reminds us of the QCA report that recommended that the solar tariff should actually be increased rather than scrapped.