Solar Matters #4: Over 120 people have attended our info sessions in Castlemaine, Campbells Creek, Harcourt and Newstead. The most popular part each time was the Q&A session when we were grilled on a wide range of topics, especially on how to pay for the system, its reliability and the savings you can make.
Is MASH doing commercial solar?
Short answer, yes, and it’s going well. Solar costs can now be written off 100% in the first year. Also, the electricity consumption of 9-5 businesses coincides nicely with the solar output; so purchases from the grid at around 25 cents per kWh are greatly reduced. The returns on investment whether from outright purchase or leasing are much higher than most, if not all, other safe investments.
How popular is solar?
The Lowy Institute has recently published its latest poll results and solar came up tops. Given a choice of renewable and fossil fuel sources we could have in 10 years’ time, 43% of people chose solar as the most likely leader. That was way ahead of others: for example, only 17% thought coal would still be playing a leading role. Mmm. Most experts however believe that coal will still be very important, partly because we don’t have a price on carbon any more and partly because our Prime Minister appears prepared to do almost anything to support the coal industry. If in doubt, google “Tony Abbott coal”
