Making money from a sunny retirement

An interesting new scheme is being trialled in Western Australia as many with solar panels on their roof paying for some of their retirement with the power of the sun.

The current deal with Synergy sees money getting put back into the pockets of folks with solar panels that are feeding energy into the local grid. However, those contracts are about to expire and many of those same people that have been getting paid for power could end up paying for it again.

The new scheme would see the middleman be cut out of the equation and that abundance of solar energy sold to other homes in the area at a cheaper rate. So for the homes that don’t have solar panels they could buy cheaper energy from their neighbors, cutting their own power bills, while subsiding those with the panels on their roof. It seems like a win-win scenario.

As one solar panel owner told the ABC, “We’re already hooked up with this gear, so we know once the trading scheme starts at least we can get something for it.”

The scheme would see the solar panel owner sell their excess power for 20 cents a kilowatt per hour, they will keep 15 cents and the remaining 5 cents will go to the power companies to pay for the poles and wires. This rate is more than what the panel owners are already getting and would mean that in the future neighborhoods could power each other and everyone benefit.

What do you think of the scheme? Is this something that you would like to take part in? Do you think that it’s about time that Australia really takes advantage of all the sun we get?