renewables stuck for a while

IPART will be releasing its draft report on payment rates for distributed generation at the end of November. The accountancy literate submissions to IPART generally support a Feed in Tariff the same as the residential power cost with some differences over whether it should be a Gross FIT or Nett Fit.

The IPART review then has to be finalized and then accepted and then made into regulations/Acts at Federal and State level.

I posit that a residential rate equivalent FIT will not happen for several reasons;
it will devalue existing baseload and peaking generators which are either owned by states or donate to political parties;
it would lead to a massive expansion in distributed generation and splintering of the profits currently held by a few generators

The utility generators may be heading the way of hay merchants in London when the horseless carriage arrived but they will fight to maintain their position as long as possible. The Cobbara coal mine and billion dollar coal subsidies to generators in all states http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/nsws-great-big-coal-subsidy-scandal
show also that states are not in the mood to shift economic and political power quickly either. A secret deal to delay the rise of renewables long enough for existing utilities to recoup their existing capital investments may even be on the cards a la deals to protect private toll road builders by promising not to develop competing public transport.

CBD may be a good company but it is stuck in a 12-18 month layover while the politics is sorted. Meanwhile better capitalized foreign firms are establishing themselves (e.g. Goldwind at Mortens Lane, First Solar at Geraldton).