Call for incentives to use solar energy

Appropriate regulations and incentives need to be put in place if New Zealanders are to be encouraged to produce solar energy, an Australian expert in photovoltaic (PV) technology says.

• Vineyard finds new use for sun's rays 

Dr Muriel Watt has been travelling and lecturing throughout New Zealand delivering this year's Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand Pickering Lecture.

She is a project manager for renewable-energy consulting company IT Power Australia, chairwoman of the Australian Photovoltaic Association, and the Australian representative on the Executive Committee of the International Energy Agency PV Power Systems Programme.

Dr Watt said before her lecture tour she conducted some research into the state of play of the PV industry in New Zealand.

She said the record showed solar-energy producers in this country were barely contributing to the national energy supply.

She recommended the government actively encourage the take-up of the renewable-energy technology.

Dr Watt said it could look to countries like Germany and Spain for successful examples of how investment in PV could be encouraged.

She said improvements to PV technology had made it a cost-effective and efficient form of renewable energy.

It was a versatile technology which could produce power from "milliwatt levels to megawatt levels", and was used in many applications, from digital watches to large power plants.

Although initial investment in PV technology was expensive, modern panels had a 30-year life-span, and if householders or business were able to more easily sell their excess power to the national grid it would be a major incentive because it would give a faster return on investment, she said.

In countries where PV energy production had expanded, governments had encouraged growth through capital grants, setting renewable-energy targets specifically aimed at PV energy production, modifying energy ratings and energy efficiency ratings to include a PV component, linking PV production to carbon pricing and establishing effective "feed-in tariffs" - making it worthwhile for producers to feed their excess power into the grid.

In Germany, solar power was bought at a premium from small producers by energy companies who were looking to enhance their "green" status, Dr Watt said.

German producer/consumers were paid four times the rate they paid for electricity they used (at the time of their initial investment) for the total amount of electricity they generated, for a period of 20 years.

This type of scheme gave certainty in investment, Dr Watt said.

It was the kind of driver which was needed, she said.

Interestingly, in countries where PV was growing as a preferred energy source, investment in the industry had come from businesses other than energy providers, she said.

Education played an important role in encouraging investment in renewable energy and some countries had school programmes in place to inform the next generation about PV.