I’d like to put solar panels on the roof of our house. Having cashed in my superannuation before it evaporated, I have a bit of spare cash and I can’t think of a better investment for the future than lowering my energy costs.

There are companies, collectives and community groups around the place who have worked out a way to make ‘connect-to-grid’ systems quite cheap by combining the Federal government’s rebate with the savings of bulk buying. Typically, thirty or so homes within a set radius enable an installation crew to maximise their work time thus providing an additional saving.

Connecting the electricity produced by panels on your roof to the wires in the street (the grid), makes your meter run backwards if you produce more electricity than you consume. If you have enough panels and the sky is sunny you might, in theory at least, get paid by your electricity company instead of receiving a bill.

Given that the Federal government provides a rebate of up to a third of the cost of the installation, you’d think it’s a direction in which they want us to be heading. Why then, is it not advertised with full-page ads and television commercials? In fact the subsidy is expected to cut out on June 30 so it seems our energy future has somehow got tied to the financial year.

But a far sadder story than the muted renewable energy attitude of the Feds, is that of the State government, which is writhing about positively hog-tied. Whoever is running the show in Macquarie Street these days has an enthusiasm for flogging off the electricity utilities that remains undiminished.

Country Energy’s website says it all. It’s chock full of good news and ‘greenpower’ tips, but try to find any reference to ‘feed-in tariffs’ or ‘connect to grid’ and you’ll have to dig down deep. You could however accept the offer to be ‘countrygreen® 100%’ which means you volunteer to pay $100 more on each bill and CE guarantees to source your electricity from renewables (while your filthy fossil-burning neighbours have money left over for a good night out).

It’s another obvious reason why privatisation of vital utilities is poor policy. The best interests of Country Energy and those of the society at large are not the same. Encouraging households to be responsible for a part at least of their energy usage is a good idea – even the Feds agree (sort of). If you are trying to offload a business though, as the NSW government is wont to do, you don’t want to be involved in any shenanigans that might affect the bottom line.

We live in very strange times. The technology is here to be used but the political will to get on with it is lily-livered, misdirected or downright blatantly subverted. Putting photovoltaic panels on the roof is an option worth investigating. Ring your electricity supplier and see what’s the best deal on offer. It might not hurt to remind them of the closeness of the A.C.T. where other utilities lurk, eager to get our business.

The New South Wales government wants private investors to profit from bringing power to the people, but I’d like us to show them that we have more power than they give us credit for.