The current, relatively new government had made some promising noises about increasing the rebates for solar hot water systems and other sustainable building conversions (solar panels, rainwater tanks etc.).
So I did what we all do, and checked the website. As far as I could tell, nothing much had changed. The rebate still stood at a thousand dollars, and is still means tested ; you can only apply if your family income in the last tax year was under $100,000. That doesn’t’ seem to make a lot of sense to me – surely our climate does not care about someone’s income. Is the aim not to install as many systems as possible to lower our national energy consumption? Anyway, I can live with that. But what really bugged me was the replacement issue.
The government states that ‘[t]o be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must replace an existing electric storage hot water system (…)’
Did I understand it correctly that I could only apply for a rebate if I chucked my current system out and installed a totally new one? That did not make a lot of environmental sense to me. Our current electric hot water tank is relatively new, and solar convertible. Why would I have to toss this perfectly fine working tank on the scrap heap in order to collect the rebate? That seemed a bit contradictory to me, so I send off an e-mail to the Solar Hot Water Rebate Team of our new government’s Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
Here is their reply:
Your understanding is correct. Retrofitted solar hot water systems are not eligible for the Solar Hot Water Rebate.
In order to be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must be eligible for at least 20 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 ('the Act')and Regulations state that in order for a solar water heater to be eligible for RECs under the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) it must be a newly installed complete system that complies with the relevant Australian standards. A review of the operation of the Act and MRET was conducted in September 2003. The review specifically examined the issue of retrofits of solar water heater panels to existing tanks and concluded that while the retrofit kit may be tested against relevant Australian Standards, residual (possibly ageing) equipment such as the tank was not subject to renewed testing against Australian Standards. The review panel was not confident that the residual equipment had the necessary reliability and durability to warrant RECs deeming.
So, we can fly to the moon but there is no way we can include residual retrofitting equipment to be tested?
Their e-mail ends with a note, typed in green, “Please consider the environment before printing this email”
Sure.
But what about considering the environment before telling hundreds of households to add their electric hot water tanks to the scrap heap?
I think I might pass on the rebate…
So I did what we all do, and checked the website. As far as I could tell, nothing much had changed. The rebate still stood at a thousand dollars, and is still means tested ; you can only apply if your family income in the last tax year was under $100,000. That doesn’t’ seem to make a lot of sense to me – surely our climate does not care about someone’s income. Is the aim not to install as many systems as possible to lower our national energy consumption? Anyway, I can live with that. But what really bugged me was the replacement issue.
The government states that ‘[t]o be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must replace an existing electric storage hot water system (…)’
Did I understand it correctly that I could only apply for a rebate if I chucked my current system out and installed a totally new one? That did not make a lot of environmental sense to me. Our current electric hot water tank is relatively new, and solar convertible. Why would I have to toss this perfectly fine working tank on the scrap heap in order to collect the rebate? That seemed a bit contradictory to me, so I send off an e-mail to the Solar Hot Water Rebate Team of our new government’s Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
Here is their reply:
Your understanding is correct. Retrofitted solar hot water systems are not eligible for the Solar Hot Water Rebate.
In order to be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must be eligible for at least 20 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). The Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 ('the Act')and Regulations state that in order for a solar water heater to be eligible for RECs under the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) it must be a newly installed complete system that complies with the relevant Australian standards. A review of the operation of the Act and MRET was conducted in September 2003. The review specifically examined the issue of retrofits of solar water heater panels to existing tanks and concluded that while the retrofit kit may be tested against relevant Australian Standards, residual (possibly ageing) equipment such as the tank was not subject to renewed testing against Australian Standards. The review panel was not confident that the residual equipment had the necessary reliability and durability to warrant RECs deeming.
So, we can fly to the moon but there is no way we can include residual retrofitting equipment to be tested?
Their e-mail ends with a note, typed in green, “Please consider the environment before printing this email”
Sure.
But what about considering the environment before telling hundreds of households to add their electric hot water tanks to the scrap heap?
I think I might pass on the rebate…
1 comments:
This is great info to know.
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