Federal government gives states solar ultimatum

Federal Energy Minister Martin Ferguson will tell his state counterparts they can either have a national solar feed-in tariff scheme or a renewable energy target, but they can't have both.

At the Ministerial Council on Energy meeting in Perth on Friday, a plan for a national solar feed-in tariff is expected to be on the table, with West Australian Energy Minister Peter Collier backing the move.

Mr Collier has said the current situation is a "balls-up" with each state having a different feed-in tariff system and there was merit in introducing uniformity.

Ahead of the meeting, Mr Ferguson said the federal government had actually tried a national approach to feed-in tariffs but each state ended up going its own different way.

"We've now got a dog's breakfast of feed-in tariffs around Australia," he said.

Mr Ferguson said the federal government's approach to clean energy in Australia was through both setting a price on carbon and a renewable energy target of 20 per cent by 2020.

He said that renewable energy target represented a $20 million subsidy to the industry.

"We made that choice, unlike Germany that went down the feed-in tariff route, we actually decided to set a target which is an absolute free kick to renewable energy," Mr Ferguson said.

"It guarantees them a slice of the market.

Mr Ferguson said there was only so much pressure through subsidies governments could put on households to turn to cleaner energy until it became unsustainable.

"Consumers are getting to a point by which they've had enough," he said.

"You're not going to cop ever increasing feed-in tariffs side by side a renewable energy target."

A Productivity Commission report released on Thursday found the state and territory feed-in tariff scheme had cost between $431 and $1043 for every tonne of carbon cut.

The commission called for all such subsidies to be axed once a price on carbon is introduced.