My Experiences with Solar Power

I thought I should tell everyone about my experiences with connecting solar power. It is a wonderful object lesson in how in our society big business always wins.

I thought it would be an environmentally responsible thing to do, install solar power panels on my roof and while economically it didn't really make sense government subsidies on installation meant that I should eventually break even. So I selected a supplier, ordered a system and paid my deposit. About 6 months later it was finally installed and the final step to turning it on was to sign the forms requesting a new meter which would measure my input into the grid. The installation people told me that Ausnet would contact me and arrange an appointment to come and change the meeting and left with paper work to give to Ausnet when they arrived. When nothing happened I then rang Ausnet and was told they hadn't received an authorisation from Origin, So I rang Origin and they told me I needed to mail them the paperwork and fill in another form. So I did all that and waited for them to come and change the meter.

Then about a month later, I received a letter saying that because I had a new meter my charges had been changed. (Sure enough when I looked in the meter box there was a nice new meter installed on some occasion when we were out). At the time (this was last year) my rate was a flat 15.75c/kWh. Now my new rates would be an off peak (from 11pm to 7am) rate of 11.57c/kWh and a peak rate (from 7:00am to 11pm) of 18.47c/kWh . When my next bill arrived it showed a charge of $131 for installing the new meter and electricity at the new dual charges and while my electricity usage was down the charge for what I had used was higher and the bill was close to normal. The account showed no electriciy fed into the grid.

Three months later my next account showed electricity being fed back into the grid and a credit for 23.5c/kWh. I thought that's strange because I had received advertising leaflets with the account saying if I installed Solar Power Origin would pay me 66c/kWh for my electricity. So I tried ringing them and after being on hold for almost an hour I gave up lodged a question online via their web site. Three weeks later I received an email informing me that to receive the 66c/kWh rate I had to complete an "opt in agreement" and that they were sending me another form to fill in. There had been no mention of this in any of their previous communications nor is it mentioned in any of their advertising material. A week later when no form had arrived I sent back a nasty email and I received the form by email.

The Form includes a 10 page legal agreement which I do not understand but I asume it includes signing over to Origin all of the carbon credits etc connected with this electricity.

So there it is! To get maximum advantage from your solar power you have to ask for a form which you won't know about unless you ask and wait on the phone for an hour and by the letterbox for weeks in order to ensure that Origin or someone else can sell the solar power you have created to someone else as Green Energy thus enabling them to generate even more coal fired power.