The ACT Government has admitted that its solar power feed-in schemes will add $225 to the average annual household bill in Canberra.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Simon Corbell made the concession in front of an Assembly committee this week but said it could take up to 10 years for the full pain to be felt.
But households can expect to begin feeling it next year, paying higher electricity bills for the small-scale tariffs to be paid to householders and businesses for their ''micro'' generating schemes.
The increase in bills to pay for the scheme will then build incrementally, until they reach what Mr Corbell has pledged will be a maximum of $225 a year ''in today's dollars''.
The expanded feed-in tariff was hailed as a ''game changer'' by solar power advocates when it was announced by Mr Corbell in September.
The scheme promises to generate up to 25 per cent of the city's power within a few years with solar farms dotted around the territory and vast photovoltaic panels on shopping centre and warehouse roofs.
It came on top of the Government's domestic tariff feed-in scheme, already taken up by nearly 3000 Canberra households, that allows residents to sell electricity generated by solar panels on their roofs back to the grid. Read more.
Environment and Climate Change Minister Simon Corbell made the concession in front of an Assembly committee this week but said it could take up to 10 years for the full pain to be felt.But households can expect to begin feeling it next year, paying higher electricity bills for the small-scale tariffs to be paid to householders and businesses for their ''micro'' generating schemes.
The increase in bills to pay for the scheme will then build incrementally, until they reach what Mr Corbell has pledged will be a maximum of $225 a year ''in today's dollars''.
The expanded feed-in tariff was hailed as a ''game changer'' by solar power advocates when it was announced by Mr Corbell in September.
The scheme promises to generate up to 25 per cent of the city's power within a few years with solar farms dotted around the territory and vast photovoltaic panels on shopping centre and warehouse roofs.
It came on top of the Government's domestic tariff feed-in scheme, already taken up by nearly 3000 Canberra households, that allows residents to sell electricity generated by solar panels on their roofs back to the grid. Read more.