Brace yourself for Solargeddon

Credit: Sam Parkinson

Solar Business

OK, here’s the bad news.

Credit: Sam Parkinson
Credit: Sam Parkinson

Despite all our efforts, despite the jobs losses, despite the facts, despite the undeniable climate logic, tragically now I fear that Solargeddon is a big step closer.

As an advisor to solar businesses across the country and around the world, unless we are blessed with a shock announcement from our Prime Minister I now hold very little hope for the survival of the RET.

I have been warning all my clients to be very cautious about major investments or at least investments that can’t quickly be scaled back for most of the year, citing the need to understand the implications of the RET review. Based on news reports and unfathomable yet persistent diatribe from Government and its senior advisors I am officially moving my solar industry survival alert radar to Code Red.

Batten your hatches, tighten your belts and halt your spending for now.

There is only a single logical place to spend your money right now and that is on a campaign war against Government on this issue. It may not change the outcome (although we still have a strong chance), but one thing is sure; if we stand here waiting we will be overwhelmed.  We need to stand up and be counted and rally every single consumer we can muster to show the Government at a minimum that axing the RET is going to cost them 4 Million votes. Its going to cost them in the near term at a State level and in less than 24 months time, they will be reminded at a  Federal level by the most powerful voting bloc in Australia’s history. The Solar Citizen.

Now I get that many of us have already invested in campaigns both financially and in time. The Government is praying that we can’t keep up the cost of this fight and that we will be swamped, but we need not be.

If you work in solar, if you have solar or if you want solar, stand up.

There is good news, I hasten to add.

There are things we can do and things that on this issue are hugely in our favour. Here’s our list.

Things you can do that are low cost:

  • Email every customer you have on your database and implore them to sign a petition, write a letter or call their local member. If every solar business put one of your staff on this task this week, we could swamp the electoral offices.
  • Every solar business in Australia’s Managing Director should call their local member this week. Don’t delay, its ten minutes of your time and could save your business.
  • Use social media to extend your reach. Social media is low cost and reaches a very wide section of cross section of the community. Email campaigns, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn can all help. Make sure the community knows what the Government is trying to do.
  • Call your local journalist and tell them you have a “huge and important issue to talk about”. Describe who you are, what you have invested, how many staff you have and what is at risk if the industry collapses.

Things you can do that cost a little money:

  • Divert your marketing budget for the next 30 days to RET campaign supporters. The Australian Solar CouncilSolar CitizensGreenpeacethe Clean Energy CouncilGetUp and the REC Agents Association have all made huge contributions and efforts and can all leverage your money to get more results than we individually can right now.
  • If you advertise regularly in your local paper, change your ad to a public call to support the RET and point readers to where they can find out more or attend events.
  • Attend an event. Events make a difference because everyone who bolsters the numbers strengthens the message. As a general principle, every single extra attendee can influence 20 people who didn’t make it.
  • Embed the Save Solar video on the front page of your web site (I’ve just done it to mine) or add some of the infographics that you can easily find with google searches

If you need materials, fact pacts or templates, contact any one of the bodies mentioned above for help and resources. I’ll help where I can too and have a previous guide here and helped develop a Fact Pack forSolarJuice which you can find here.

I’m very much like many of you; a small business making ends meet with no spare cash and I’m dependent on the solar industry for survival. At minimal cost I  have managed to attend events, done research, speak to my local members office, write letters, signed petitions, made submissions, post blogs, send email campaigns, pull fact packs together and even educate a politician or two. I even signed a pledge for a monthly donation.

We can win this issue and the single biggest thing we have in our favour is the millions of people in our industry and who are powered by solar.

There is one other final point I would like to make. Inevitably, it is all too often the same businesses who over and over again support this type of activity, despite how essential it is for the greater survival of the industry.

The businesses that are actively supporting campaign activity are readily identifiable and that means that its also pretty obvious who is simply sitting back and riding everyone else’s coat tails. Some are small business but many are large businesses who stand to benefit substantially from the efforts of many others who are contributing.

When its all said and done, no matter which way the result goes I would reasonably anticipate that solar dealers will support those who supported the industry’s survival when it counted most and also that consumers will choose companies who have  demonstrated a willingness to support the communities interests, not just their own.

Source: Solar Business. Reproduced with permission.

Comments

6 responses to “Brace yourself for Solargeddon”

  1. Bob Davis Avatar
    Bob Davis

    A government this hostile really needs to be in some other country. Like maybe Nauru or Christmas island.

  2. John McKeon Avatar
    John McKeon

    Our idiotic federal government can only be understood as the COALition, a child of the Greenhouse Mafia, the spawn of the fossil fuel interests.

  3. Sungevity Australia Avatar

    Nigel, we couldn’t agree with you more! The solar industry needs to join forces and stand up for themselves and for all Australians who have solar or want to go solar. If we don’t stand up for the RET then how can we expect anyone else to? Come on all you solar businesses, attend local events, write a letter to your MP, post on social and stand up for our industry! There is no doubt that the power of solar cannot be stopped, but scrapping the RET will sure slow it down. When you lead the way, others will follow. Don’t forget to host a Cuppa Sunshine event this week, as supported by Solar Citizens, and show your love for our industry. Shine on! http://www.sungevity.com.au

    1. Miles Harding Avatar
      Miles Harding

      The good news is that the more rabid the government is on the RET, the less likely it will be dumped by the senate.

  4. Miles Harding Avatar
    Miles Harding

    Like most extremists, it is impossible to reason with our willfully stupid government.

    For some time, I have subscribed to the philosophy that we should do the right thing and not use cost as our sole decision criterion. Many column inches have been devoted to the subject of the cost of solar and the necessity of government incentives. It makes more sense to approach the problem from a different angle.

    I remember that the Abbott government’s attempt to dismember the Climate Commission was a spectacular failure. Not only did they fail to get rid of that thorn, Tim Flannery, but they let him off the leash. The phoenix-like Climate Council rose from the ashes and continues to do good work, free from interference by the evil LNP.

    The problem is that Abbott set him self up as the denialist of the
    century when he overthrew Malcolm Turnbull and is now trapped by his own
    dogma. I can’t see him being able to change from his current ludicrous
    position.

    The fact that the Climate Council effectively harnessed public outrage to such an extent that their annual funding was guaranteed within a few days of going public gives some hope that a “stick it to the bastards” campaign for solar power and generally, sustainability will be more effective than soliciting grants from such an unreasonable government.

    If the public were accurately informed about the most likely near future trajectory of society, I believe that they would be making very different decisions to those they are making today. There is complicity at every level in this conspiracy of ignorance being perpetrated on the people.

    Nobody is helping to connect the dots of declining economic conditions, energy, pollution etc. What is missing are honest near term projections, not that sugar coated crap that is usually in the media, but information that is actually useful in making good life decisions. It is my belief that most people know that there is a disconnect between the spin and their experience and that something is wrong, but they have no idea what it is.

    The solar industry should not be in the business of flogging solar panels, but that of building resilience into the suburbs. Solar panels, batteries, EVs, electric bikes are all part of this. There is a much bigger opportunity than solar panels.

  5. Geoff Tosio Avatar
    Geoff Tosio

    Nigel I strongly endorse your efforts,
    As the sales manager in a small branch of a larger Australian Solar company myself and all the employees are dreading the possibility of another dip on the ‘Solar Coaster’.
    We have been doing everything we can in the local area to combat this:
    – Registering for every campaign that we can find on social media or the internet.
    – Contacting local politicians from all sides of the political spectrum, meeting with them and educating them about the reality of the Energy industry (and combatting the spin)
    – Chipping in some of our hard earned wages towards campaigns that can have a real effect by utilising mainstream media to target marginal seats.
    – Speaking on the local radio programs to educate the public about the situation.

    This is a vital investment in our future.
    There is no doubt that as an industry we need to spend more time reinvesting profits into personal skills development and industry advocacy – the time of industry cowboys and short sighted market grabbing is over, we need to mature into a collective force that can defend itself against the energy giants and show the world that we can play a serious role in our collective energy future. I therefore call on all of my colleagues to see past their local Solar market campaigns and see that we are all in this together – a growing Solar industry has room for success for anyone who is in it for the long haul…and I want to see many more competitors in the coming decades.
    I paint a picture for the public and politicians where I see distributed generation and micro grids that are robust, cheap and that invigorate their local economies – it’s not about whether that will happen, just when… 10, 20 or 100 years away, it’s all up to us to look past the short term and excite everyone about their energy future.
    Top work Nigel – thanks for your time, energy and top level advocacy.
    Geoff Tosio
    Solar Depot Bellingen

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