In an article released by news.com.au, small scale solar power owners are costing those without solar power, $1 billion per year. There have been numerous ridiculous articles released over the years that have been proved wrong yet they still keep coming out. Hopefully they are fooling less people now than ever before. This particular article has not been received well by solar power owners and solar companies around Australia with many feeling this is big power companies trying to take a cheap, unfair dig at those that did embrace solar power.

The article says that the Energy Supply Association of Australia (ESAA) has research showing that solar power owners are costing others $340 million a year in network costs avoided as well as $680 million a year in feed-in tariffs. The main aim of the article is to convince people that special tariffs need to be set up so that solar power owners pay for their share of all these ‘hidden costs.’

If one were to believe in that, then maybe solar power owners should start invoicing the ESAA, whose members include a number of big energy companies such as AGL, Origin, EnergyAustralia etc, for the benefits they provide them with. Not only are rooftop solar power systems producing clean, green energy that is fed back into the grid for these big energy companies to resell to other customers, but it also helps increase the capacity of the grid at peak times which means energy companies (and customers) are saved huge money as they are less lightly to need to use expensive generators to keep up with demand. Rooftop solar power systems increase the grid without actually having to physically increase the network, saving millions on the same infrastructure that big energy companies are saying solar power owners are avoiding paying ‘their share of costs’ on. These costs have been associated with ‘gold plating’ of infrastructure in the past.

The article states that, “the rage in rooftop installations has delivered the greatest benefit to wealthier households – at the expense of the poorest.” This fact has been disproved countless times by reputable researchers around the world. The Clean Energy Council (CEC) released its Solar Power Australia Report only a few months ago in December 2012 showing that the suburbs where there was the highest uptake of solar power were not actually the highest earning suburbs. In fact, over a quarter of all solar power owners earn less the $65 000 per annum and over half earn less than $100 000 per annum. Many who do not have the cash upfront are actually using interest free offers and financing the installation of solar power.

In addition to the above, the Centre for Policy Development released a study only last month showing those solar power owners are saving between $300 million and $670 million in wholesale electricity costs. These should be savings for all households, whether they have solar power installed or not, as long as the big energy companies pass on the savings. Money saved by customers has been redistributed to all industries instead of increasing the already deep pockets of big energy companies.

“It is no surprise that some of the big players in the traditional power industry are clutching at straws in media reports today to try and discourage the competition they is facing from the emerging solar industry,” said Clean Energy Council Deputy Chief Executive Kane Thornton. “It is ridiculous to single out solar power users, who are only one part of a nationwide movement by consumers to take control of their power use and save on the cost of living.”

Mr Thornton says that more industry collaboration is needed – the changing energy market should be discussed reasonably. With energy companies that record net profits in the millions, this one-sided and unfair article has not been received well. Their efforts to introduce special tariffs are supposedly to protect those less wealthy when they are in fact only protecting their revenues and outdated business models.

The CEC (who is partly funded by some ESAA members) noted on Sunday that the ESAA’s proposal is like suggesting 20 years ago that people using email should chip in for stamps.

Mr Thornton said, “Suggesting that people who have responded to government incentives to install more efficient appliances or generate their own clean energy are somehow cheating the system is a self-interested grab from old energy businesses looking to turn back the clock and preserve their out-dated business models.”

Going completely off-grid and installing stand alone solar power systems is becoming more and more attractive these days.