‘Way too much solar’ encouraged by government subsidies: Matt Canavan

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan says there has been “way too much solar” encouraged by government subsidies, which has led to the situation where the energy regulator has to “effectively restrict” the amount of renewables to keep the grid stable. According to the Clean Energy Council, the federal government provides a financial incentive for individuals and businesses through the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme. “The problem now is we’ve got so much solar in some states that the worth of that power is very, very low,” Mr Canavan told Sky News host James Macpherson. “The problem is, it’s deterring investment across the rest of the day because the coal-fired power stations and gas-fired power stations can’t make any money during the middle of the day – they’ve got to jack up their prices in the evening, and it’s bringing forward the retirements of those power stations. “We’ve got a mismatch between what the value of power is to the grid, to society, and what people are either paying for it or the benefit they’re getting from it by producing at those times. “There has been way too much solar encouraged by government subsidies, and now we have the absurd situation where the energy regulator has to step in many times in any given season and effectively restrict the amount of renewables that are in the system to keep the grid stable.”