Surge in solar power in Eastern Australia threatening sale price of power assets
Solar boom raises doubts on power asset sale THE AUSTRALIAN< ROSS KELLY
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL JUNE 30, 2015 When bidders crunch the numbers on a looming $26 billion auction of Australian power assets in one of the world’s biggest privatisation of this year, they would do well to cast their eyes upward, to the tops of apartment blocks and factories.
Business for fitters of rooftop solar panels in eastern Australia is flourishing as more households and companies choose to generate their own power rather than relying entirely on electricity from the grid.While solar remains a small part of the nation’s energy mix, accounting for about 2 per cent of electricity output, the industry’s growth in recent years is casting a shadow over the impending auction of power assets in New South Wales.
Demand for solar power began stirring around eight years ago, when expensive upgrades to the grid jacked up electricity bills while rooftop-panel prices were falling. The market has continued to grow despite easing in late 2010, when the state government started slashing generous subsidies for people who sold solar power back into the grid.
Now, many expect a strong pick-up with the launch of new batteries from Tesla Motors and others capable of storing substantially higher amounts of solar energy for use after sundown — and at prices that are expected to fall more within the reach of ordinary households. Batteries with weaker storage capabilities have been around for some time, but stronger ones have tended to be prohibitively expensive.
“Whether it takes 12 months, two years or five years, I believe battery storage will become viable,” said Matt Vella, managing director of MPV Solar, which turns over $5 million a year installing panels in sun-soaked Sydney suburbs. “When it does, it’ll be as big for the energy market as the shift from the fixed-line telephone to mobile phones.”
New South Wales last week invited first-round bids for a long-term lease of 49 per cent of the government’s power-transmission network…….
The problem for bidders is this: How do you value the poles and wires that crisscross the state if demand for solar panels and storage batteries surges? A recent survey commissioned by Morgan Stanley found 2.4 million households in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia states were willing to spend up to $10,000 each on a solar-panel installation, including the batteries. There were 7.8 million households in Australia in 2006, a total projected to rise to at least 11.4 million by 2031, according to the most recent count by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The worry for grid owners is that cheaper storage devices will take more people off their networks more often, forcing a ramp-up in prices to cover costs. And the higher rates go, the more appealing solar panels and other energy-saving gizmos, such as low-voltage lights, look.
“That’s when people start talking about the death spiral,” said Clinton Wood, director of Lighthouse Infrastructure, a Melbourne-based fund manager with investments in solar power.
To be sure, the rooftop solar market has been unstable and influenced by government regulation, even on a continent with the highest amount of solar radiation per square meter. It is also unclear how soon companies such as Tesla can drive the cost of batteries low enough to appeal to a mass market. Tesla’s “power-wall” batteries, which were launched in May and will be available later this year, will sell for as much as $4,500 and need to be integrated with solar panels and other devices. The cost of buying and installing the full package may be $26,000 or more.
The case for solar power is more clear-cut for businesses that use energy during the daytime. Sun Connect, which turns over tens of millions of dollars a year, decided three years ago to focus exclusively on the commercial market. Since then, the company says, revenue has tripled……..http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/solar-boom-raises-doubts-on-power-asset-sale/story-fnay3ubk-1227421384047
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of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 
2nd July 2015
The Editor
The Advertiser
As presaged in my earlier (but unpublished) letter, the coy comment by SAPN (The Advertiser, 2/7/15) was a warning that enforced reduction in charges by SAPN will not necessarily be passed on to the consumer by the retail arm of the privatised electricity industry. In the old ETSA integrated electricity system a reduction was a reduction, no if’s or but’s, no smokescreens or mirrors.
The real culprit is Government mandated privatisation, a creeping cancer endorsed by the Liberal-Labor duopoly that continues to the present day.
In the meantime the subservient SA public just shrugs its shoulders in apparent fatalistic acceptance of an ideological agenda. If this is the case then we deserve all the rorts and wheeler-dealing that the electricity industry cooks up.
As Queensland’s electors demonstrated, there is only one effective way to stop the rot and that is to vote the Government out of office. Let Koutsantonis and Weatherill know, in no uncertain terms, that this is what you will do and then see how quickly they change their tune.
Dennis Matthews
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