Back in 2013 Consumer Magazine did a review of grid-tied Solar PV. Their summary was that the economics of grid-tied PV didn’t stack up and that they had negligible environmental benefit. You can understand why we weren’t impressed. We took Consumer to task over it as it was obvious they didn't get it. The response from prosumers and consumers was not good.
Understanding why people install solar and whether it is a good investment for them isn’t as easy to understand as you might think. Add into that questions about the place of Solar PV in our national energy mix and if it should be promoted by government or our network providers as good for the country and things can really get complicated.
But here we are two years later, with well over 2,500 more households enjoying energy generated by the sun and some big commercial arrays being fitted into shopping centres and businesses around the country. So it obviously makes sense to a lot of people.
At SEANZ we survey our members every year and talk to a lot of people, so we think we have a pretty good understanding of the factors driving this outstanding growth in the industry. So when Consumer Magazine asked us for input on their upcoming review we were happy to help. There are plenty of people out there who have entrenched views which, we don’t believe, are in the best interest of the consumer, and we didn’t want them dominating the discussion.
So, in the interest of the consumer and to enable a healthier, better informed discussion about solar we decided to release our response to Consumer Magazine.
We answer key questions that many consumers and those working in the industry regularly wrestle with. We hope our response helps consumers make informed decisions. We also hope our answers help those that are making important business decisions that rely on an informed view of the future of our electricity network.
- What are the most important factors for consumers to bear in mind if they’re considering solar PV?
- When should consumers consider augmenting a grid-tied PV system with battery storage?
- Why focus on Solar PV when the cheapest sources of renewable generation – wind and geothermal – can cost as little as 9c/kWh. But the cost of electricity from even the most efficient residential PV system is 26c/kWh?
- Do we think the expectation that power prices will consistently increase in the long term is realistic, when New Zealand has low demand growth and an excess supply of committed generation?
- Do we think there’s a risk of New Zealand repeating the (so-called) mistakes of Australia if we fix our buyback rates too high?
- What are some of the ways consumers can shift their power use to maximise the amount of power they get from their PV system?
- Do we agree that potential of Solar PV to minimize New Zealand’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions is “very limited” and that “in the short term PVs contribution to New Zealand’s targets is likely to be minor”?
- Do we agree there is a risk that our peaky electricity demand will lead to PV-owning consumers avoiding paying their fair share of network and retail cost-to-serve costs, thereby shifting a greater proportion of these costs on to (often lower-income) non-PV owning consumers?