Low- and middle-income Australians could soon be paid to replace their gas stove with an electric stove, but only if they install solar panels or renewable energy batteries on their home.
The Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Greens have reached an agreement to limit the wholesale price of gas to $12 a gigajoule in a bid to reduce household electricity bills.
The 12-month cap for East Coast gas producers will take effect in December, and a special session of Parliament to cap gas and coal prices will take place this week.
The Treasury estimates it will cut average household energy bills by $230 a year, but as part of a deal with the Greens, the government also agreed a ‘significant and substantial’ package in the May budget to help the poorest Australians. and tenants to switch to renewable energy. .
Green leader Adam Bandt has indicated he wants low- and middle-income people to get thousands of dollars up front if they get rid of their ‘dirty gas’ stove and install rooftop solar panels or battery storage batteries. Energy.
“What we want to do is help households, especially low- and middle-income households, make the switch from what can often be expensive and polluting to gas to cheap and simple renewable energy,” he told ABC Radio National. .
Green leader Adam Bandt, who is working on a broader energy package with the government ahead of next year’s budget, has indicated he wants low- and middle-income people to receive thousands of dollars up front if they get rid of your ‘dirty gas’ stove and install rooftop solar panels or battery storage power
“Details will be announced in the budget, but the essence is to help households and businesses generate and maintain renewable energy and use it to reduce their energy bills by hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.”
The Climate Council estimates that Australians could save $1,900 a year by replacing their gas stoves with more appliances.
But the most basic rooftop solar panels cost thousands of dollars and Tesla’s solar batteries cost up to $20,000, making them too expensive for middle-income Australians.
“The problem is, for a lot of low-income people, a lot of businesses, they just don’t have that cash up front, especially right now,” Bandt said.
“So what we got from the government is a commitment to figure out how the government can step in, cover that initial cost so people can make that switch and start enjoying the savings right away so it’s not just something that just people with high income can afford.’
State governments offer rebates for those who switch to renewable energy and Victoria offers up to $1,850, or about half the existing value of an average 4-kilowatt solar PV system.
The Greens want a new set of federal government subsidies that are specifically designed to get Australians to switch off gas in favor of renewable energy.
The Climate Council estimates that Australians could save $1,900 a year by replacing their gas stoves with more appliances (image is a file image)
Bandt argued that giving targeted taxpayer-funded subsidies to the poorest Australians to install renewable energy would be the best way to “start to control” energy bills, with the Treasury forecasting a 56 per cent increase in electricity bills in 2022 and 2023.
“We think energy bills are through the roof and it’s driven by the greed of the coal and gas corporations,” he said.
We have to do something.
The Green leader said companies should be paid to cut off gas and install renewable energy instead.
“A lot of companies are using gasoline right now because they thought it was always going to be cheap and it turns out it’s not,” Bandt said.
They use gas for things that could actually be done with electricity.
“Now if the government steps in and helps those companies with some money up front to say, ‘We’ll help you switch from an expensive gas stove to an electric stove where you have a battery and you’re storing your energy with solar, you can start to reduce the costs of those businesses by hundreds of dollars, if not thousands.’
The most basic rooftop solar panels cost thousands of dollars and Tesla’s solar batteries cost up to $20,000, making them too expensive for middle-income Australians (solar panels on a Sydney home pictured)
Labor disagreed with the Greens’ push to freeze electricity bills for two years by imposing a windfall tax on coal and gas companies, something a previous Labor government tried but failed to do with the companies. mining in 2010.
“We will continue to push for that as the government designs its support measures which they say will start to be implemented next year,” Bandt said.
“With electric bills getting so high, we should freeze electric bills for the next two years and we could finance it by putting a windfall tax on these big coal and gas giants.
“We can freeze energy bills while we’re in the middle of this crisis.”
The gasoline price cap is being revised in mid-2023 with the $12 per gigajoule price cap still above the 2021 average wholesale price of $9.20 per gigajoule.