Hon. Kate Doust questions the Minister for Energy on the delay in extending the feed-in tariff scheme to small businesses and retirement villages. The Minister indicates reluctance to extend to businesses but openness to addressing retirement village issues.

AnsweredQoN 420Legislative Council
Asked
26 May 2011
Portfolio
Energy

QuestionView source ↗

ELECTRICITY — FEED-IN TARIFF SCHEME
(1) Why, after 32 months in office, has the minister yet to make a decision on extending a feed-in tariff scheme to small businesses in commercial premises? (2) Has the minister read the Office of Energy’s final report into the feasibility of expanding this scheme? (3) Does the government support extending the feed-in tariff scheme to residents in retirement villages, some of whom are unable to access the current scheme due to its eligibility criteria? Hon PETER COLLIER

AnswerView source ↗

(1)–(3) We continue to monitor the feed-in tariff, as the member is well aware. The notion of having more uniformity across jurisdictions is one that is being touted at the moment. Getting back to the commercial component, I will continue to consider that, but I say at the outset that it will be very, very unlikely that we will extend the feed-in tariff. If there are issues within retirement villages, I am more than willing to look at them. It has been a very popular program. We made the decision to reduce the rate in the budget to the residential feed-in tariff. Having said that, it has been extremely popular. About 46 000 people now have photovoltaic systems on their roofs, which we did not have prior to the feed-in tariff.
(2) Has the minister read the Office of Energy’s final report into the feasibility of expanding this scheme? (3) Does the government support extending the feed-in tariff scheme to residents in retirement villages, some of whom are unable to access the current scheme due to its eligibility criteria? Hon PETER COLLIER replied: (1)–(3) We continue to monitor the feed-in tariff, as the member is well aware. The notion of having more uniformity across jurisdictions is one that is being touted at the moment. Getting back to the commercial component, I will continue to consider that, but I say at the outset that it will be very, very unlikely that we will extend the feed-in tariff. If there are issues within retirement villages, I am more than willing to look at them. It has been a very popular program. We made the decision to reduce the rate in the budget to the residential feed-in tariff. Having said that, it has been extremely popular. About 46 000 people now have photovoltaic systems on their roofs, which we did not have prior to the feed-in tariff.
(3) Does the government support extending the feed-in tariff scheme to residents in retirement villages, some of whom are unable to access the current scheme due to its eligibility criteria? Hon PETER COLLIER replied: (1)–(3) We continue to monitor the feed-in tariff, as the member is well aware. The notion of having more uniformity across jurisdictions is one that is being touted at the moment. Getting back to the commercial component, I will continue to consider that, but I say at the outset that it will be very, very unlikely that we will extend the feed-in tariff. If there are issues within retirement villages, I am more than willing to look at them. It has been a very popular program. We made the decision to reduce the rate in the budget to the residential feed-in tariff. Having said that, it has been extremely popular. About 46 000 people now have photovoltaic systems on their roofs, which we did not have prior to the feed-in tariff.
Hon PETER COLLIER replied: (1)–(3) We continue to monitor the feed-in tariff, as the member is well aware. The notion of having more uniformity across jurisdictions is one that is being touted at the moment. Getting back to the commercial component, I will continue to consider that, but I say at the outset that it will be very, very unlikely that we will extend the feed-in tariff. If there are issues within retirement villages, I am more than willing to look at them. It has been a very popular program. We made the decision to reduce the rate in the budget to the residential feed-in tariff. Having said that, it has been extremely popular. About 46 000 people now have photovoltaic systems on their roofs, which we did not have prior to the feed-in tariff.
(1)–(3) We continue to monitor the feed-in tariff, as the member is well aware. The notion of having more uniformity across jurisdictions is one that is being touted at the moment. Getting back to the commercial component, I will continue to consider that, but I say at the outset that it will be very, very unlikely that we will extend the feed-in tariff. If there are issues within retirement villages, I am more than willing to look at them. It has been a very popular program. We made the decision to reduce the rate in the budget to the residential feed-in tariff. Having said that, it has been extremely popular. About 46 000 people now have photovoltaic systems on their roofs, which we did not have prior to the feed-in tariff.

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more