By Brett Bumeter - 12.06.2008

Australia is caught up in a tangle of out of date politics that is making it difficult for the country to leap forward as a Solar Energy power house. The country is positioned in a way that makes it very easy to claim a good amount of energy from the sun, but state legislation currently is blocking growth in solar power adoption, acceptance and leadership.

Ms Miller a representative from BP Solar recently indicated that Australian states are their own worst enemy when it comes to Solar Power adoption. So far there is only a single state in Australia that has adopted legislation that is remotely friendly to consumers and companies that want to invest in solar energy in Australia.

Ms Miller told the third international Solar Cities Congress in Adelaide what was needed now was action from governments around Australia to adopt feed-in legislation, to make switching to solar power more economical for individuals and companies.

So far, South Australia is the only state to have moved on the issue by last week introducing into parliament feed-in laws which will allow consumers to sell back electricity they produce in their homes or businesses to the grid at a profit.
If approved, the SA laws would allow consumers to be paid twice as much for any electricity they return as they would be charged for it.

States ‘standing in way of solar nation’

This is by no means just an Australian problem. It is actually very common throughout much of the world. Local politics, especially at a state or province level often blocks the adoption of solar power or blocks the ability for electricity producers to sell electricity back to the grid when they have excess.

Australia is considered one of the countries with a very low carbon footprint when you look at the amount of energy they use and how they produce that energy.

Critics suggest that the percentages in Australia are actually stacked because the country has not built out the infrastructure to use electricity and electric appliances at levels similar to those seen in the US or even Europe. This skews Australia making them look more progressive in alternative energy than they really are. When in fact, they just do not use a great deal of energy.

Note. This Article was initially targeted for publication in February of 2008.  It was lost somewhere in the editing shuffle, probably back during the winter when our editors were spending too much time playing xbox 360 instead of doing their jobs. Our Publisher has officially cracked the whip and the editors have gotten back to work. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 12th, 2008 at 5:12 pm and is filed under Selling Solar Power, Solar Acceptance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.