Solar Energy Society Backs Victorian Feed in Tariff, Calls for National Action

21 July 2010

John Grimes, CEO
Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES)
Website: www.auses.org.au
Email: CEO@auses.org.au

The Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES) has welcomed the Victorian Government’s commitment to generate 5% of the State’s electricity from solar power by 2020 and $50m in funding for a 154MW solar project at Mildura. “This announcement by the Victorian Premier, John Brumby, of a feed-in tariff for large scale solar makes Victoria the sun smart State” said John Grimes the CEO of the Australian Solar Energy Society. “By generating 5% of its electricity from solar power, Victoria will lead Australia in powering homes and communities with pollution free energy from the sun”. “Premier Brumby’s announcement is good news for Victoria’s environment, for regional communities and for the Australian solar industry. This policy will generate thousands of clean economy construction and manufacturing jobs in north-west and central Victoria, boosted by $50m in funding for Solar Systems, a subsidiary of Silex”.

The Australian Solar Energy Society calls on the Federal Government and Opposition to match Premier Brumby’s announcement and commit to at least 5% of Australia’s electricity coming from Big Solar by 2020. A 5% target can be met through a Commonwealth Budget funded competitive feed-in tariff and loan guarantees. “Big Solar is becoming big business throughout the world, and Victoria will soon be riding the clean energy investment wave. With leadership from Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, the sunburnt country can be the sun-powered country.” AuSES also welcomes Premier Brumby’s commitment to further investigate a feed-in tariff for commercial-scale solar. This is the fastest growing area of solar energy globally, but it remains an untapped market in Australia.

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