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O.T Carbon Tax v's PV ecomonic? but for who 17-Aug-2011 At 10:19:43 PM JamesMc

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What really annoys me is the solar multiplier that was invented a couple of years ago to prop up the domestic solar panel installation industry.

This was a scam to multiply the value of renewable energy certificates. Effectively this means that if a householder puts PV on the roof they get to sell five one megawatt hour certificates for each megawatt hour of renewable energy they produce will produce. The reason was to make domestic PV more affordable. (Most never see the certificates - there installer takes them and discounts the cost of installation accordingly.)

As EvanB says, if you want to reduce carbon emissions you should just buy green power. The problem is this. Say I pay for four megawatt hours of renewable energy, and my retailer buys certificates from domestic PV, the retailer will only have to buy five certificates that came from one megawatt hour of renewable energy.

This means that for each megawatt hour of renewable energy produced by domestic PV, the total renewable energy is reduced by 5 - 1 = 4 megawatt hours. Domestic PV REDUCES the generation of renewable energy rather than increasing it.

JamesMc