Take the heat out of the system
SOLAR OWNERS LEFT OUT
THE Victorian electricity blackout shows how far the energy professionals and politicians are out of touch with reality. If, during the peak heatwave demand for power, every household that had air-conditioning on had rooftop solar panels, they would have put no load on the system and would in fact have been producing power for the grid. Even my modest 3.8kW solar system will produce enough electricity to run my air-conditioning and this is in Tasmania. So much for the experts who say solar in Tasmania is inefficient.
If Victorians had installed solar hot water, it would have taken some demand out of the system, because these systems use solar energy, not electricity, to heat the water. The link between heatwave demand for electricity and the capacity for solar to mitigate the power crisis needs to be exploited. It can be done by inducing more households to install solar. This will not happen if feed-in tariffs are kept low. transformers, powerlines, employ staff, etc. People needed to be encouraged to take up panels because they were initially hesitant in the early days. Now the benefits are clear some people seem to be more focused on making extra cash, instead of reaping the benefits of lower or no power bills. Tread your own path.
Raw prawn
ON our electricity bills we are paying for the infrastructure for Aurora. Don’t come the raw prawn with us, we invested a lot of money into our solar panels to help Aurora keep its power up when the water was down (and still down). We get 8c a unit into the grid, and Aurora flogs it to other users for 28c a unit. We can only put 3w into the TasNetworks grid so TasNetworks get heaps of our power for zilch. Aurora must be getting heaps of excess power to cover “less well off” subscribers. Lucrative pay packet and bonuses.
Was it all worth it?
WE were all conned by Aurora to spend many thousands of dollars in infrastructure on our homes, to produce solar kilowatts on their behalf to be exported to the grid. As an owner of a rooftop solar system since December 31, 2010, I did receive the following Legacy Feed-in Tariff 110 of 28.283c per kW, until December 31, 2018. When considering the system I needed and to future proof myself from future energy accounts, it has taken me eight years for the payback period. Why would you ANU finds Tasmanian lakes among the world’s worst for metal contamination Yet again, natural values owned by us ALL are polluted by the FEW who make extraordinary amounts of money out of it. That money siphons through to some in our community but like an inverse pyramid the overwhelming bulk of it goes to owners and shareholders. not think we would now whine, when we produce solar kW on their behalf and export back to the grid, only to receive 8.541c a kW (plus 5.0c per kW for 12 months) in return from January 1, when they resell it back to ourselves and others at 26.431c per kW on Tar 31. To add insult, if you alter your existing tariff 31 and 41 they say “time of use tariff 93”, you forfeit the additional 5.0c per kW. Having such an infrastructure installed (with the risks like storm damage, vandalism, failed equipment) you have to wonder if it was all worth it.
I pay with energy
AURORA cannot even print on its accounts the average household consumption for those with feed-in systems: it adds the power used to the power fed back to the grid then divides the lot by 90 days to get the quarterly “consumption” figure. They have been told of this error for years. Along with this is the claim that those who have solar systems do not pay for “costs associated with the electricity supply chain” (Letters, January 26). My accounts show I “pay” by way of energy supplied to the grid. The feed-in tariff should be considered a gross theft considering the power “saved” in the dams due to solar feed-in may be sold at up to 50 times the normal retail price for a kW of energy. This benefits all consumers who should be grateful for solar providers even if they are paid full retail value for their power. Solar assistance is heavily subsidising the average consumer and Aurora should not be saying we are disadvantaging them.
Greed makes us all suffer
KENNETH Hayne has singled out greed in his condemnation of the banking sector. Unfortunately most ills in society are caused by greed. When society divides into the haves and have-nots, then fairness collapses and we all suffer because of it, one way or another.
Capital punishment
THE rape and murder of innocent women in Australia is virtually happening every day. We need to reintroduce capital punishment back into this country, for offenders that are found guilty of these horrendous crimes. While I strongly believe that this should happen, I won’t hold my breath waiting.
North Hobart success
THUMBS up to Hobart City Council in revamping the female facilities at North Hobart Oval to coincide with the historic AFLW debut (“It’s all change for big match”, Mercury, January 30). Watching the gals go head to head at the ultimate level in AFL footy is a sight to behold and certainly no place for the faint-hearted! And credit to the Mercury for the great photos and liftout pages of the Kangaroo girls.
Cable car replaces thousands
OUR mountain is projected to have 350,000 cars per year making the summit. The real travesty for sacred kunanyi will be when we have to revisit ‘Ogilvie’s scar’, widen the road and extend the already expansive summit carpark. Time to build a cable car and keep the road for emergency and biking use above the Springs. All weather and evening access, even in heavy snow. Probably not in a gale.