Green Party policy to fund New Zealand household solar

Share

A plan mooted by New Zealand‘s Green party to help households finance rooftop PV systems could be implemented by a coalition government with the nation's Labor Party next year, according to a report by Radio New Zealand News.

With a general election in New Zealand expected by Saturday December 6, the Greens have formulated a policy that would see households borrow from public finances at the public borrowing rate of 4.1% with repayments made through the tax rates applied to the property in question.

According to the report, the Greens claim a typical NZ$10,000 (US$8,400) 3 kW system produces NZ$1,000 worth of electricity annually and the cost of borrowing at the rate extended to public bodies in the nation means a NZ$10,000 loan would cost only NZ$900 per year, leaving households NZ$100 per year better off while repaying the loan.

Under the proposed policy, the Greens would permit households to borrow up to NZ$15,000 for systems, from public funds.

Radio New Zealand reported today Simon Bridges, energy minister for the country's centre-right National Party minority government, dismissed the proposed policy, stating taxpayers should not subsidize a form of energy more expensive than conventional sources. Mr Bridges added, if the government does not subsidize solar through the plan, energy suppliers will be handed the burden and will pass it on to consumers.

But today's report says New Zealand's Labor Party leader, David Cunliffe, described the Greens' proposal as ‘sensible' and said it could be implemented in the event of a coalition government being formed by the two parties after the election.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.