Rewiring Australia has backed the federal government’s announcement today of the first round of green loans for households.
“Household electrification is the fastest and most cost effective way to reduce emissions and ease the cost-of-living by bringing down power bills for good,” said Rewiring Australia Executive Director Dan Cass.
“One third of households already have solar and these loans will help others to reap the benefits of self-generated electricity costing only five cents per kilowatt hour, the world’s cheapest energy.”
Mr Cass said that unlike many energy policy options, low cost electrification loans are popular across the political divide.
“Finance for households to electrify is the most popular and non-partisan energy policy in Australia. Polling commissioned by Rewiring Australia shows the majority of voters – including almost half of Coalition supporters – would consider installing solar panels and electric appliances if they had access to a low cost loan,” he said.
“We encourage the CEFC to pick up the pace and allocate the remaining $940 million of the $1000 million it has available to loan households under this scheme.
“Programs like this which use concessional loans from commercial providers are appropriate for wealthier households who can take on debt now to enjoy reduced bills into the future. In order to bring the economic and health benefits to the lower 60% of households, we will need new finance models and Rewiring Australia is working with the government on this.
“It is sensible to support households to work as Virtual Power Plants during this transition phase as coal-fired power stations retire and fail and before we have a fit-for-purpose consumer-centred energy market that fairly rewards consumers who are also energy producers.”
