Northern Beaches Council and the Australian Solar Council are hosting free workshops to give residents a better understanding of the options available to them when the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme finishes at the end of the year.
Workshops will be held at Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club on 22 September and 20 October at 6pm and will cover:
- what they need to do before the Scheme ends
- available battery technologies and storage solutions
- the economics of such household solar energy schemes
With 'feed-in-tariff' payments for electricity fed back into the electricity grid ending, many 'solar households' will be left wondering what changes they will need to make to their solar energy systems.
The closure of the Scheme will likely see customers receiving around only $0.06 per kilowatt hour for the same service that they were receiving between $0.20-$0.60 per kilowatt hour.
The NSW Solar Bonus Scheme is a government program which aims to encourage households and small businesses across NSW to install small-scale renewable energy systems to supply their on-site energy, with excess electricity feeding back into the grid.
When the Scheme closes, participants will need to review their options for managing energy use—from using timers on appliances and shifting energy use to daytime hours to using heat pumps or electricity to heat water systems.
While the workshops are free, on-line registration is essential via eventbrite.com.au
The Australian Solar Council is a non-profit organisation which aims to promote scientific, social and economic development through the environmentally sound use of solar energy.
Over 146,000 NSW households and small businesses have installed small-scale renewable energy generators under the Scheme.