Burned by the solar swindle

BANORA Point pensioner Tom Hawkes' solar panels generate more power than he uses - but he is still being slugged with hefty power bills.

BANORA Point pensioner Tom Hawkes cannot believe his solar panels generate more power than he uses -- but he is still being slugged with hefty power bills.

"My power is being stolen," the furious 78-year-old grandfather said.

In the last quarter, Mr Hawkes's home produced more than 900kW of power and used just 750kW.

But Mr Hawkes receives only an 8c feed-in tariff for the electricity he produces, while he pays 42c an hour for anything he uses.

"I'm very frugal with electricity. We got rid of the beer fridge and lighting is kept to a minimum," he said.

The feed-in tariff is the rate paid for the electricity grid-connected panels contribute to the local network.

Energy projects and policy manager for the Alternative Technology Association, Damien Moyse, said consumers were being ripped off by large providers, who were enjoying obtaining electricity at a reduced wholesale cost, without passing on any of the savings to consumers.

Meanwhile, those people with solar panels were also losing out.

He called for the O'Farrell government to legislate a fair feed-in tariff to reflect current wholesale electricity prices.

Worse, the big power companies were using the previously inflated solar tariff - 60 cents per kW under the former Labor government's solar power scheme - as a reason to raise everyone else's power bills.

Complaints from solar consumers to the energy ombudsman have soared 94 per cent in the past year.