Senator Boswell asked the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, upon notice, on 19 September 2011: In regard to renewable energy: (1) With reference to section 103 of the Clean Energy Bill 2011 (the bill) which defines a carbon unit as personal property, has the department received legal advice on the consequence of defining a carbon unit as 'personal property'; if so, when was this advice received and when was the advice sought. (2) What is the legal need to define a carbon unit as personal property, and what would be the consequence of not having this definition in the bill. (3) Has the department received legal advice on any liability that a government might be exposed to if the clean energy legislation is rescinded and carbon units subsequently become worthless or lose value; if so, can a summary of this advice be provided. (4) Has the department estimated the size of any liability that a government may be exposed to if it rescinds the clean energy legislation; if so, can estimates be provided over the next 10 years, or as many years as possible, as the value of carbon units presumably grows. (5) In regard to any liability that a government may be exposed to from rescinding the clean energy legislation, does the liability depend on whether the carbon unit is issued in a fixed charge year, in a flexible charge year, freely issued or is an international emissions unit or an eligible Australian carbon credit. (6) Can estimates be provided of the number and value of carbon units that will be on issue over the first 10 years, or as many years as possible, of the clean energy program, and can these estimates be disaggregated into units issued in a fixed charge year, units issued in a flexible charge year, units freely issued, international emissions units, eligible Australian carbon credit units and units otherwise issued or acquired. (7) When will the department issue carbon units in a given flexible charge year and will they be issued ahead of flexible charge years; if so, when. (8) Has the department received any legal advice on whether any rescinding of the clean energy legislation would equate to an 'acquisition' of carbon units for the purposes of section 51 (xxxi) of the Constitution; if so, can a copy of that advice be provided. (9) Can an explanation be provided as to the meaning of section 100(7)(a) of the Clean Energy Bill 2011 and does the surrendering of a carbon unit immediately after issue mean that the unit is not 'owned' by an individual at any particular time. (10) Given that Mr Leeper told a hearing of the Environment, Communications and the Arts Legislation Committee on 28 May 2010, that the modelling the department had at that time indicated that there would be some '16.2 million excess RECs in the market' after the surrender period of 14 February 2011, how many excess Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) there were in the market at the end of that surrender period. (11) Given that the department also had modelling at that time suggesting that the number of small scale RECs would peak at around 11 million in 2010 which Mr Leeper suggested would fall away over time to approximately 6 million a year, can information be provided as to how many small scale RECs were created in 2010, and how many have been created so far in 2011. (12) Can an explanation be provided as to why and how this difference occurred. (13) What are the estimates for both small and large scale certificate creation for the next 3 years. (14) Is the department confident the small scale RECs will all be out of the system by 2014. (15) Given that in October 2010, Ms Rankin told the committee that, all up, under the Solar Homes and Communities Plan from 2007-08 to that date that expenditure was $959 million, what was the final cost of those programs, given that the subsidies have gone off-budget since the beginning of the calendar year. (16) Can the following information be provided on an annual basis for as many years as there are records: (a) the greenhouse gas savings attributable to solar hot water systems; (b) the greenhouse gas savings attributable to domestic solar photovoltaic (PV) systems; (c) figures on the current installed capacity of wind turbines; and (d) estimates of how many megawatts of wind capacity is estimated will be needed in the renewable mix to reach the 2020 target. (17) Given there have been numerous press reports in recent months concerning complaints over installation, especially over photovoltaic installations, has the department set in place tougher oversight standards; if so, have these been implemented. (18) (a) How many complaints have been made by solar panel installers that have on sold their credits to brokers and have lost money; (b) how much has been lost in dollar terms, and (c) how many companies have defaulted.