Last Aussie PV panel maker threatened by RET review - report

Sep 3, 2014 - Tindo Solar, the only photovoltaic (PV) panels maker in Australia, might not survive if the government accepts the Renewable Energy Target (RET) review recommendations, the firm’s general manager Richard Inwood told Radio National on Tuesday.

If the proposed changes to the green programme are made, this will be in all likelihood the end of the company’s business, Inwood said. The company, which owns an AUD-6-million factory (USD 5.6m/EUR 4.2m), will be on track to provide 600 job positions by securing 20% of the country’s AUD-1.2-billion solar panel market, should the scheme remain unchanged.

Australia aims to source 20% of its total power from renewables by 2020 under the RET, so the programme offers support to projects such as solar and wind farms. However, several months ago the government picked global warming skeptic Dick Warburton to review the RET. The review panel’s report, published in August, calls for either the close of the RET scheme to new entrants with large-scale projects or the adjustment to the set renewable energy share goals.

Tindo Solar is one of the many companies that have been affected by the planned RET revision. Several companies put on hold or abandoned their projects due to the created uncertainty on the country's renewables market. Last month alone, Silex Systems Ltd (ASX:SLX) scrapped a 100-MW concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) project in the state of Victoria and Chinese solar products maker Wuxi Suntech said it would shut down its research and development (R&D) centre in New South Wales.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.930/EUR 0.708)

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