Solar Citizens today said the NSW Government’s commitment to provide interest free loans to help households adopt rooftop solar was better than the policy shortfall we’ve had until now but fell short of consumer expectations and potentially duplicates existing financing options.
Solar Citizens Director Joseph Scales said NSW households preferred grants over loans and Labor’s policy announced yesterday was a better way to support people to take up solar and tackle high energy prices.
“We know people prefer grants over loans because they are a more effective way of helping households – particularly for people on low incomes who struggle with the upfront investment,” said Mr Scales.
“In fact, there are already commercial providers out there who offer low or no-interest loans for solar installation, so we’re not sure this policy adds much value as a policy on its own, without other targeted measures.
“There is a role for no interest loans, but only as part of a wider suite of policy measures to encourage solar uptake.
“But the positive thing is that we’re having a discussion about how to encourage solar uptake, not whether to do so.”
Mr Scales said there is around 15GW of potential rooftop solar capacity on NSW houses.
“We can massively increase energy supply simply by empowering people to generate their own electricity.
Mr Scales said there was also now clear evidence that rooftop solar not only drives down power bills for solar-homes, but also cuts the price of power for everyone else.
“An increasing amount of power is exported to the grid by solar households, which is a cheap source of power that can be provided to others.”
Article courtesy of www.solarcitizens.org.au
