NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has backflipped on his plan to slash the subsidy on the Solar Bonus Scheme after he failed to secure support for his retrospective legislation.
Mr O'Farrell needed the backing of the Christian Democrats and Shooters and Fishers in the upper house to pass the laws but failed to secure their votes.
The Labor government he trounced created the scheme that led people to rush out and get rooftop solar panels installed on their homes.
Mr O'Farrell said in May costs for the scheme were blowing out. To stem this, his government would cut payments to subscribers to the scheme from 60 cents to 40 cents per kilowatt hour for the power they feed into the grid.
The change would have saved taxpayers $471 million, the premier had said, but Mr O'Farrell told News Limited new figures show the scheme will cost $1.44 billion, not the $1.9 billion originally estimated.
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