Thanks for the suggestions, eco efficient, much appreciated. And yes, it is the SMA inverter that is apparently the hold-up.
I'm meeting another installer tomorrow and will ask about your point above re: when the paperwork to register for the FiT happens in the process and also the possibility of using another inverter temporarily until our preferred one becomes available.
Further to all this, I'm pleased to report that today I received a call from an extremely helpful member of the policy dept of the DPI Vic in response to my inquiries. Basic points he made were:
1) In May this year, there were 11,000 systems installed, most of which were 1.5kW or less, which DPI equated to be approx 16% into the 100 megawatt quota.
2)An informal (and unqualified) estimate at present would be that we are still at less than 20% of the 100 megawatt cap, though he flagged that many systems that are already installed are still not registered, yet are planning to. Plus, they are aware that demand has increased sharply recently, so there's no accurate way to know where we're up to right now. Neither is there any way to realistically estimate when we will reach the 100 megawatt cap.
3) Data on exactly how many megawatts are registered for the Premium FiT is only collected annually. This means that at end November 2010 will be the next time that official data is collated. Without this data, the Minister cannot legally end the scheme. Therefore, the DPI is saying that there is no legal way that the Premium FiT could be ended before December 2010.
While this may not give me complete answers, I find it far more encouraging than the rumors of a 'September' end to the scheme I was fed by one supplier.
Hope it helps some of you too.
Posted Thursday 17 Jun 2010 @ 12:30:03 pm from IP
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