This is a quick survey to better understand the thoughts and motivation of ATA members with respect to Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
Electricity retailers across Australia are required by the government to purchase RECs in order to meet targets for renewable energy generation. These RECs can be purchased from householders who are installing solar hot water [...]

The New South Wales Government has announced that it will introduce a feed-in tariff for householders who install solar photovoltaic systems. However, the design of the scheme is of critical importance.

A government taskforce is currently investigating options for the scheme and has called for public submissions.

Submissions should be sent by 12 January to:

NSW Solar Feed-In Tariff Taskforce
NSW Department of Water and Energy
GPO Box 3889
Sydney
NSW 2001
Email: FIT.taskforce@dwe.nsw.gov.au

The Government has announced that it will scrap the $8000 solar rebate sometime around the middle of 2009. The Solar Homes and Communities Plan (SHCP) will be replaced by an alternative incentive, called ‘Solar Cridits’, delivered through the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target scheme.
The new scheme will involve solar PV installations (and other small-scale renewable energy) [...]

Sanctuary is Australia’s only magazine dedicated to sustainable house design, profiling the work of Australia’s leading environmental architects and designers.
Due to its success, as of January 2009 Sanctuary will be going quarterly.
Features of Sanctuary issue 6 include:

Natural, chemical-free pools
Cool treatments for a hot house
10 top tips for sustainable design
Gorgeous houses from Broome to Sydney, Melbourne [...]

Summer in a sunburnt country: ReNew magazine looks at subterranean homes, backyard sheds, balcony gardens and electric boats.

The Clean Energy Council has released a report by Access Economics that states that a gross national feed-in tariff would provide a massive boost to the solar industry, encourage uptake of solar power and would spurr investment in the technology.

accesseconomicsreport-feed-intariff

Rainwater tanks can make a huge difference to mains water consumption as demonstrated by one Melbourne household even through some of the driest times on record. Stuart McQuire (authour of Water Not Down the Drain, published by the ATA), Wendy Orams and their two teenage daughters have used an average of just four litres of [...]

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced to much fanfare on November 24 that the city’s municipal utility would launch one of the continent’s largest solar power programs. The mayor’s plan would direct the city’s municipal utility, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), to build or purchase 1,300 MW of solar energy by 2020.

Among provisions of the plan is a feed-in tariff for 150 MW of solar photovoltaics by 2016. This is the first official announcement of a feed-in tariff proposal by a California city, but it is not the first in the United States. Gainesville, Florida previously announced that it was formally considering a feed-in tariff to replace its solar rebate program.

Recently, the Palm Springs Desert Sun reported that Palm Desert, California was also considering solar feed-in tariffs after city officials toured Spain, one of the world’s leading developers of solar energy. Spain uses feed-in tariffs.

Click here to read more.

The latest Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting has provided scant details on climate change policy, while hinting some agreements had been made on a national feed-in tariff scheme.

At the meeting, government leaders pledged significant capital injections into education, health and housing sectors, and signed an new Intergovernmental Agreement to better align federal-state financial relations.

Visit the Government News website to read the full article

Click here to download the National Principles for Feed-in Tariff Schemes

The UK looks set to adopt feed-in tariffs for renewables at last as new legislation in the Energy Bill was agreed by parliament.

The new measures agreed yesterday also include a Renewable Heat Incentive, which also covers the injection of renewable biogas into the gas network.

The amendments tabled to the bill also increase the size of renewable installation that can sell energy back to the national grid from 3 MW to 5 MW.

Click here to read this story.
Click here to download the Bill.