Antinuclear

Queensland’s Premier blames rising electricity prices on solar energy: this doesn’t ring true

Newman playing dangerous game of solar politics REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson  25 February 2013 Queensland Premier Campbell Newman and his team feigned to receive the shock of their lives when the Queensland Competition Authority delivered its recommended 21 per cent price hike for the 2013/14 year.

And there were no prizes for guessing who Newman would blame – rooftop solar, the carbon price and the federal Government. Anyone but himself, and his own team.

Queensland consumers should be worried about rising electricity prices. But they should be more concerned about a government that clings to a century old energy system, is relying on short-term bandaid solutions such as price freezes, and is refusing to adapt or embrace to the new technologies and business models that will deliver the cost-effective solutions of the future.

Solar, carbon, and Gillard are easy targets to wrap up in a sound bite and a newspaper or internet headline. But by sheeting  the blame on renewables, and by appearing more focused on protecting the revenues of the state-owned network providers and generators – possibly because those assets are up for sale – Newman is digging himself into an even bigger hole and causing even greater pain for the public.

Energy experts say the Newman policy cocktail – a combination of state subsidies on electricity use, price freezes, tariff designs that add fixed costs and do not encourage peak demand reduction or energy efficiency, and his choice of demonising new technology rather than embracing it, will simply accelerate a spiral towards stranded assets rather than an efficient network.

Even the QCA got into the anti-renewable rhetoric late last week, suggesting in its press release that the increases were partly the result of the rising cost of renewable energy targets. But its own report tells us the opposite is true. The cost of the large scale target is steady (and might produce some benefit to the state if it bothered to actually built something), and the costs of the small scale scheme (rooftop solar PV and solar hot water) will fall by 17.1%, according to the QCA figures….. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/newman-playing-dangerous-game-of-solar-politics-21866

February 25, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, Queensland