Riddells Creek Sustainability

Riddells Creek Solar Neighbourhood was launched on Thursday June 5 at a public meeting and you will be able to apply on line from June 16 until July 5th.

Lyn, Julie, Russell and an electrician went to see the solar installations in Black Rock and Sandringham. It was inspiring to see so many going up in one street. We saw the warehouse full of panels, inverters and roof-mounting equipment. Photos and more information about our expedition were presented at the community meeting.

For Riddells Creek, people need to decide how to source the $8000 (and later get it back via the rebate once the panels are fully operational on your roof; max 6 months from date of PV rebate approval). There are many ways to source the $8000 including personal savings, a bank loan (some banks do green loans at slightly reduced rates). The Sunbury Bendigo Bank will halve the application fee. Their unsecured loan rate is 12.89% and their secured loan rate (against a house for example) is 9.5%. The latter would add about $455 to the cost of the system depending on the length of the loan. The former would add about $590 to the cost of the system. We recommend approaching your own bank to see if they can better these rates. A few households have dropped out since the Federal budget decision to means test the rebate for households earning less than $100,000. We have well over 25 households going ahead with pre-inspection quotes.

The total cost of the system will be $1499, plus the $8000 ($9499). This includes the panels, an inverter, a new meter, all fully installed, checked and compliant with Australian Standards.

House installations must be in a 10km radius from Riddells Creek Post Office. If you are not sure you are within this distance, visit this page and type in your address: Distance Lookup Map

If you type in “Macedon” or “Romsey” or “New Gisborne” it will tell you how far the township is from the Riddells Creek PO. Or put in your address (eg. 1 Main Road, Riddells Creek). Or zoom in or out and move the blob around ( if it puts your house in the wrong place or if Google maps don’t know your street) the distance will update. If townships are marginal they will be included but we need to draw the line at townships that are clearly beyond the 10 km. Small communities outside 10km don’t despair. Rezeko (the company name for the Victorian arm of Beyond Building) has set new costs to allow smaller clusters to get together, see below.

Because we are a ‘pre-Federal budget’ group, we are allowed to go ahead at $8,895 even if we get only 25 houses within 10km of Riddells Creek.

The first step in the process is to enter your details at the Rezeko website www.rezeko.com     The website operates from  June 16 until July 5th.

Now the website is ready you are able to register under the RIDDELLS CREEK SOLAR NEIGHBOURHOOD.   You are able to apply on-line. Rezeko will then send you a welcome letter with the Government’s PV rebate application form. To save time, the Rezeko welcome letter and the 1KW Government PV Rebate form are posted below.

You can start filling out these forms now but DON’T SEND THESE FORMS OFF UNTIL YOU HAVE REGISTERED WITH REZEKO VIA THEIR WEBSITE.

If you want to install a bigger system, make sure you fill in the form that is for a 2KW PV Rebate. The cost is an extra $8000 for every extra kilowatt above 1KW. The $8000 rebate applies only to the first 1KW; ie. a 2KW system costs $17,499 minus the rebate.

If you are intending to go ahead as part of the Riddells Creek Solar Neighbourhood please let us know. We’d like to set up a separate Google map showing the location of the Solar Neighbourhood participants, so that we can schedule pre-installation inspections as efficiently as possible. To do this, we need you to email us your street address to rjb@hotkey.net.au or phone Julie on 54287623.

Downloads:
click here to download the files

1. Welcome from Rezeko – includes full details of the timing of the installation process. The main change is that the $8000 is only now paid after the Government has accepted your application. Also no money is paid until the pre-inspection is completed. After the pre-inspection you will be given a quote on the final price – this will be $1499 for most but some households may have extra costs, such as the meter box, roof pitch, or three phase, etc. You then accept or reject the offer.
2. Government rebate application form for a 1kW system.
3. Government rebate application form for a 2kW system.
4. Price list for pods, clusters and mini-neighbourhoods outside of the Riddells Creek 10km limit and solar schools price list. We recommend you encourage your schools to participate in the discussion about utilising the special rebate available for schools.
5. The revised solar calculator – it now has an estimate of the effect of the State Government’s miserly/pathetic feed-in tariffs (which will be introduced in January 2009).

To summarise:

• The system and basic installation will cost $1499.
• You will save about $300 p/a (because of less electricity taken from the grid).
• It will take about 5 years to recover the cost of the installation.
• The benefits for the Planet and future generations are considerable.

Note that in this period it is possible that the price of electricity will increase and politicians will eventually do the right thing re tariffs so the benefits will increase over time. We will call a public meeting at the installation phase.

Cheers, congratulations and good luck with the next stages.
Russell, Lyn and Julie

In the May 13th Federal Budget the Rudd Labor Government announced it will spend $25.6 million in funding under the Solar Homes and Communities Plan in 2008-09

As part of the changes to the scheme a new means test will be introduced. From midnight May13th, access to the $8000 rebate will be restricted to households with an annual taxable income of less than $100,000. This means-test brings the program into alignment with the Solar Hot Water Rebate which also has a means-test of $100,000. Unfortunately some Riddells Creek Solar Neighbourhood people will miss out on the $8000 rebate for now. It is extremely disappointing that the Government is not setting out to massively boost the solar power industry in order to limit carbon emmissions now.

Renewable Energy Certificates generated by solar power systems will also continue as before.

In the Budget it was announced that from 2009, Australian households will also have access to $10,000 Green Loans which will help households with the upfront costs to improve the energy and water efficiency of their homes, including through installing solar power systems.

Solar Power Generation and Feed-in Tariffs

On Monday May 5th, the State Government Energy Minister Peter Batchelor, announced a scheme that will pay households about four times the standard retail rate of 17 cents, for the excess energy that households generate from solar panels on their roof. From next year, households will be paid 60 cents per kilowatt hour fed into the grid.

Environment groups were disappointed with the scheme as most countries with solar schemes pay a premium rate for ALL energy generated, whether it is used at home or fed into the grid. The argument about NET metering versus GROSS metering will continue for some time. The Municipal Association of Victoria, which represents local councils, is calling on the Government to extend the subsidy to cover ALL energy produced by homes and small businesses. To combat climate change, the State Government needs to encourage clean energy production and cut our reliance on polluting brown coal.

We urge you to write to the Premier John Brumby and the Energy Minister Peter Batchelor to lobby for a premium rate for ALL energy generated.

Phone, fax or letter has more effect than email.

Send it to – Peter Batchelor, Level 20, 1 Spring Street, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Phone 96584660 and fax 96584631 or email peter.batchelor@parliament.vic.gov.au

And to The Premier, John Brumby, Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne 3000.

See next article for some information you may wish to consider for your letter to Peter Batchelor and John Brumby. Its not too late – send the letter this week!