South Australians shell out for ‘unfair’ legacy solar rebate scheme

Big solar rebates for early rooftop adopters will cost SA taxpayers tens of millions of dollars this year. See how the feed-in tariffs for each energy company compare.

South Australians are forking out $80m a year for a generous solar rebate scheme run by the state government that even the energy minister agrees is unfair.

New figures show 88,245 early adopters of solar are still signed up to a legacy feed-in tariff scheme that was set up in 2008, and will receive nearly $900 each next financial year.

Under the program, which started winding back new applications in 2011, rooftop solar owners are paid 44c/kWh for spare electricity they feed into the grid.

It’s estimated $79.4m will be credited to customers next financial year – or $900 per member of the scheme.

It comes as many big energy retailers dramatically slash their solar feed-in tariffs rates for those not signed up to the program. This includes Simply Energy, which is cutting its rate from as much as 15c/kWh to just 6c.

Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said he was “not fine” with the expensive state government-mandated scheme, which will end in 2028.

“It was a legislative reform made by the Liberal Party and the Greens – they amended the legislation to have it last this long and there are dramatic costs to the South Australian public because of it,” Mr Koutsantonis said.

“People can then (in 2028) use their solar the way it was intended to be, as an offset rather than a revenue stream.”

Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis said the scheme had a “dramatic cost” for South Australians, but it was too hard to end earlier than 2028.

Mr Koutsantonis explained energy companies, obligated to pay the solar users under the scheme, pass on the cost to other unsuspecting customers.

“People who are on that subsidy are having it paid to them by their neighbours,” he said.

“It’s not fair, but good luck to these people – they got on to this system early.”

Mr Koutsantonis said the early adopters had “very old” systems, and upgrading them significantly would require them to forfeit further subsidies.

The South Australian Council of Social Service has previously raised concerns about the fairness of the system. Chief executive Ross Womersley said the scheme was “funded disproportionately by non-solar households” in 2017. He was on leave and unable to be contacted for comment for this article.

The Advertiser revealed rooftop solar owners not on the government scheme were facing huge bill spikes of up to $1000 a year as energy retailers slashed their feed-in tariffs.

One of the biggest providers, Simply Energy, will cut their rebates tom up to 15c/kWh to just 6c from July 1, while hiking their usage charges.

Simply Energy explained the soaring popularity of solar systems had caused the value of the electricity they produce to plummet.

An Advertiser analysis found some feed-in tariffs went as low as 3c/kWh. Origin Energy is cutting its rebate from between 6-20c/kWh to just 5-10c/kWh from July 1.

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