MEDIA RELEASE from

Senator the Hon Penny Wong The Hon Greg Combet AM MP

Minister for Climate Change Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change

Parliament House, Canberra ACT 2600 Tel 02 6277 7920 Fax 02 6273 7330 PW 46/10

26 February 2010

ENHANCED RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET SCHEME

The Rudd Government’s Renewable Energy Target scheme will be enhanced to provide greater certainty for households, employees and businesses within the renewable energy industry, as we build the low pollution economy of the future.

From 1 January 2011 the Renewable Energy Target, which guarantees 20 per cent of Australia’s energy in 2020 will come from renewable sources, will include two parts - the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET).

The LRET, covering large-scale renewable energy projects like wind farms, commercial solar and geothermal, will deliver the vast majority of the 2020 target. This will free these projects from uncertainties that may have been caused by strong demand for small-scale renewable technologies.

The SRES will cover small-scale technologies such as solar panels and solar hot water systems and deliver the remainder of the target. It will provide a fixed price of $40 per megawatt hour of electricity produced, providing direct support for households that take action to reduce emissions.

Under this fixed price, a Sydney household that installs a 1.5 kilowatt solar panel system in 2011 will benefit from an upfront subsidy of $6200. If the same household decides to install a typical solar water heater they will receive $1200 in support under the SRES.

These changes are expected to deliver more renewable energy than the original 20 per cent target and will ensure we build the clean energy future Australia needs.

Importantly, the Government’s revamped RET will support new jobs and investment in both large and small-scale renewable energy projects.

While these changes address some uncertainty in the current market, uncertainty around the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is also harming market sentiment. This illustrates why it’s critical to have a market-based, long-term response to reducing emissions to drive investment in the renewable industry.

The Government will shortly release an industry consultation paper and intends to legislate the changes in the Winter Sittings of Parliament.

The Government will continue to work with the states and territories on other issues being considered by the Council of Australian Governments’ Review of Specific RET Issues.

Changes to Insulation and Solar Hot Water Rebates

Solar hot water rebates still available!

 As heavily reported in the media, the Federal Government’s Environment Minister,  Peter Garrett, has announced the discontinuation of the home insulation program and changes to the solar hot water rebate.  The Federal Government’s solar hot water rebate is reduced from $1600 to $1000 and the rebate for heat pumps reduced from $1000 to $600. 

The Federal Government’s solar hot water rebate is one of four incentives for solar hot water and applies only to residents replacing an existing electric hot water system with a solar hot water or heat pump system; along with RECs & VEECs rebates the overall rebate available to residents replacing existing electric hot water systems with solar hot water is now around $2500.

 For residents replacing gas hot water systems the State Government rebate applies and this remains unchanged; along with RECs VEECs rebates the overall rebate available to residents replacing existing gas hot water systems with solar hot water remains around $2450.

How the announced changes may affect you:

 ·         New solar hot water orders (after 19/02/2010) replacing existing electric hot water systems will receive the Federal Government’s new rebate amount $1000

·         Existing customers who have placed an order on or prior to 19/02/2010 are unaffected by the change*

·         Existing customers with installation in progress or completed are unaffected by the change*

·         State Government rebate for residents replacing gas systems remains unchanged

·         RECs & VEECs rebates (applicable to residents replacing electric or gas hot water systems) remain unchanged

·         Rebates are still available and significant- the financial (not to mention environmental) case for installing solar hot water is solid however the trend seems to be clear that rebates are shrinking over time so the time to ACT is now!

 * System needs to be installed and rebate application received by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts no later than 19 March 2010

 Changes to the Green Loans Program 

On 19 February 2010, the following changes to the governments Green Loans Program were announced:

 An extra 600,000 free Home Sustainability Assessments have been added to the 360,000 already committed to the program. 

After long government delays for assessors to make bookings, a new call centre has now been set up for them making the booking system more efficient.

The actual loan component of the Green Loans program will be discontinued from 22 March 2010, however assessments will continue to allow you to make informed decisions about how to improve the energy and water efficiency of your home.