Dan Andrews Doesn’t Understand How Victoria’s ‘Solar Homes’ Program Works

Dan Andrews, the Premier of Victoria, has been a busy man.  For four long months, Melbourne was locked in a desperate, life or death struggle with the coronavirus and only recently emerged victorious.  It’s well past time he stopped to pat himself on the back and take a well-earned rest, as he has clearly been doing everything by himself.  This was made apparent by a tweet he sent out yesterday showing he doesn’t understand how his own state’s Solar Homes Program works.

I don’t expect someone who has been waging a desperate battle against a dangerous pandemic¹ to keep up to date on trivial matters such as the details of an incentive for Victorian home solar, but there should be someone available to make sure his tweets are factually accurate and prevent him looking like an idiot.  For the sake of our national pride, we want to avoid any Australian Premier resembling Donald Trump.

A Twitty Twitter

Here is the problematic tweet that proves he’s working all on his own with no one to fact-check him…

We ticked over our 100,000th Solar Homes installation the other day. That means 100,000 Victorian families with half-price solar who paid nothing up front – and are already saving on their bills.

— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) November 17, 2020

The problem is this tweet is demonstrably untrue. Victoria does not have 100,000 families who received half-price solar and paid nothing upfront.  This is because at the moment the Victorian Solar Homes Program consists of two incentives:

• A subsidy of up to $1,850 off the cost of a rooftop solar power system or half it’s total cost — whichever comes first.
• An interest-free loan equal to the above subsidy.

This means the maximum amount a household can currently receive off the upfront cost of a solar system is $3,700.  While this is a hefty chunk ‘o change, it is still less than what the typical Victorian solar system costs.

Using SolarQuotes’ top-secret prototype ‘Price Explorer’ tool I can see that while the average price paid for a solar power system² is falling in Victoria³, the average price – before the Victorian rebate is applied- in the past 3 months was about $5,300.

SolarQuotes’ secret prototype Price Explorer tool. Please don’t tell Finn I showed you this.

So only a small minority of Victorians will have had a solar power system installed for nothing upfront.  On top of this, not everyone who gets the subsidy also takes the interest-free loan.

But at least Dan didn’t attempt to claim borrowing money is the same as saving money, as Solar Victoria did here.

Get This Guy Some Help!

In Australia, it’s traditional for State Premiers to do everything themselves.  This includes digging mines, building bridges, and constructing highways.  I know this because every time a major piece of infrastructure gets completed the news will show the Premier in a hard hat putting the finishing touches on it.⁴

But all this work is too much for one man to handle.  Maybe a woman could do it, but even without a one-legged chromosome that contributes to colour blindness, baldness, and haemophilia, I wouldn’t recommend it⁵.

I know states are saying they’re hard up for money at the moment, but they really need to find it within their budgets to hire some sort of assistant or staff member who can check their Premiers’ tweets and stop them looking stupid.  It will also prevent them from getting lonely in those big, empty, State Government houses.

We’ve got to give Premiers some support, otherwise they’ll be too busy to fight disease for us.  I’ve heard from a trusted source that Dan Andrews is so busy that when someone asks him a question he only has one second to guess an answer and, as a result, he has been second-guessing everything from expert medical advice to how to run a quarantine hotel for months now.

But at least his workload should get easier thanks to Melbourne beating the virus.  Unfortunately, it’s now Adelaide’s turn to play with the idiot ball that has “COVID” stamped on the side.⁶

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/dan-andrews-solar-homes/