Thanasis Avramis has been an advocate of solar panels since he had them installed in 2008.
Key points:
- The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) wants the ability to switch off household solar systems
- AEMO says the measure would only be needed in emergencies to stabilise grid
- Thanasis Avramis says it would make “Australian families pay for the mistakes of others”
He is not happy with a new proposal from authorities to switch off or constrain output from household solar systems as an emergency measure to stabilise the nation’s electricity grid.
“In the last 12 years we’ve probably earned about $9,000 worth of feed-in tariff. That’s been a very substantial reduction in the cost of our electricity,” Mr Avramis told 7.30.
“The default position has often been to force a solution on Australian families for problems that are the fault of the network as a whole — and the regulator, and the many particular governments at one time or another that have not been able to plan properly.”
Australia is leading the world in per capita growth of rooftop solar, with new panels installed about every six and a half minutes.
Since 2010, the number of panels across the nation has grown from 100,000 to 2.2 million.
But the proliferation is at times leading to gri