Blow for NT solar industry as tariffs change overnight, reducing customer incentives

AS Territorians adjust to an economy crumbled by the coronavirus pandemic, solar technicians face another blow in a change to tariffs – made behind closed doors – which some say has “destroyed the industry overnight”.

Solar City NT managing director Neill Carberry believes the new standard isn’t an attractive investment anymore. Picture: Michael Franchi

AS Territorians adjust to an economy crumbled by the coronavirus pandemic, solar technicians face another blow in a change to tariffs – made behind closed doors – which some say has “destroyed the industry overnight”.

Reductions to the feed-in tariff, from about 23.7c per kilowatt/hour down to a new standard of 8.3c per kilowatt/ hour, mean homeowners wanting to install solar will spend more than three times as long paying it back before they start to make money.

Solar City NT managing director Neill Carberry said the new standard wasn’t an attractive investment anymore.

“We had 26 clients in our pipeline, that’s a quarter of a million worth of sales. When we did a ring around this morning, not one single client wanted to proceed,” he said.

“They’ve literally destroyed the whole industry overnight.”

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Mr Carberry said a reduction in tariffs was inevitable, but it should have been communicated to stakeholders.

“I do support the move, it needed to happen and it was never going to stay forever because PowerWater and Jacana have been losing money hand over fist … but it should have been a more staged approach,” he said.

“They should have said ‘OK guys, the feed-in tariff is going to be dropped, we’re going to do it in 14 days’, not as of yesterday.

“I’ve taken 12 to 15 weeks to get (a) pipeline in place for my customers and now it’s literally just disappeared overnight.”

Mr Carberry said the timing was questionable given he’d already lost about $250,000 due to the coronavirus pandemic and said people didn’t have a lot of money to spend in the current climate.

But Deputy Chief Minister Nicole Manison denied the solar industry would be hit by the tariff reduction and said residents would benefit in the long run.

“It’s actually going to be a really good package for people in the long run when it comes to not only doing the right thing by the environment but also their hip pocket,” she said.

“It’s a really difficult policy area but we think we’ve got the balance right here.”

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Ms Manison said a battery-focused scheme also announced over the weekend was the focus of the government.

“We’ve recognised it’s time to bring on a battery, it’s going to be something that will be good for (splitting) reserve issues and the fact that we know more people want to take up solar,” she said.

The battery scheme encourages residents to invest in battery systems to ensure they aren’t wasting any excess energy created by solar panels.

Opposition Leader Lia Finocchiaro said Territorians were blindsided by the move she believes was made under the cover of the global coronavirus pandemic.

“Households that had been planning to get rooftop solar now have their plans put into jeopardy,” she said.

“There is no lead-in period for this change, no warning at all and no time for people to properly plan these investments.”