Page 6056 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 2010
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These categories will be capped both as a protection for ACT consumers and to provide investors with certainty. Each category will also be paid a premium rate appropriate to the scale of operation and degree of risk borne.
The bill I introduce today is the first of two that are required to introduce and implement the expanded feed-in tariff scheme.
It is my intention to introduce next year a further bill as the basis for the large generator category. This category, of up to 210 megawatts over 10 years, will deliver the territory with the most cost-effective emission reduction and security of supply outcomes. Industry consultation and modelling are currently being undertaken to confirm the appropriate structure for that bill. Passage of that bill will allow for the first option of up to 40 megawatts of large generator capacity in 2011.
The bill I introduce today will have the following effects. Firstly, it will rename the existing household component as being a microgenerator. Secondly, it will create a new medium generator category. Thirdly, it will introduce capacity caps for both new categories at 15 megawatts each. Fourthly, it will provide for a mechanism by which the premium price applicable to each category may be set and reviewed. And fifthly, it will extend scheme eligibility to not-for-profit community organisations.
An explanatory statement outlining the effects of each proposed amendment has been circulated. It is important to note that the guaranteed 20-year payment period remains unchanged.
I would like to focus on the issue of the extension of eligibility. Many individuals and organisations made submissions during the scheme review noting that people who occupied rental or structurally unsuitable properties could not participate in the existing feed-in tariff scheme. Almost 30 per cent of Canberrans fall within this category.
The government acknowledges that some Canberrans have been excluded and that community groups have not to date had the potential to contribute to meeting the ACT’s climate change challenge to the extent they may have wished.
My department has worked with community groups to develop a process by which incorporated not-for-profit community-based groups may form with the express purpose of owning, developing or operating an eligible renewable energy generator on a shared basis.
For these groups it will no longer be necessary that the occupant of the property on which the generator is installed be the sole beneficiary of the premium payment. Groups may choose to pool funds to install a generator on their own property, the property of a group member or the property of a third party—for example, a leased roof or block of land.
This increases the range of options open to residents whose access to the scheme has previously been denied because of building location, design or tenure. Both the micro and medium generator categories will be open to such groups.
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