The Australian Solar Scam
Like much of the developed world these days, here in Australia it’s become the normal thing for every house, and plenty of commercial properties, etc to have large arrays of solar panels on the roof. Power generated from the sun that’s shining down on the roofs anyway so why not make it useful.
The power that isn’t used directly gets sent back to the power grid, and in a most generous manner, the electricity retailer will probably pay you for that power you provide back to the grid. The thing is, they bill us around 35c per kilowatt hour we pull from the grid, while most of the retailers here (in Queensland where I am) will pay you 4c per kilowatt hour you send into the grid.
You may be thinking something like “well that’s not a scam if you agreed to it.” You’re probably correct. This isn’t the scam I am talking about. It’s wrong, and greedy and in general a pretty scummy sort of thing to do. Either it’s worth 4c or it’s worth 35c and we should be compensated the same for what we generate and provide them as it costs us to use what they generate. (They charge additional service fees on top for infrastructure, etc)
The real scam is that in order to receive this mere pittance for the power you generate and provide back to them, they require you…
