Policy lurches are killing our solar industry
1st November 2011
Alan Whitehead has slammed the Government’s disastrous and botched announcement that it will slash funding for solar installations across the UK by over 50%.
The Government yesterday confirmed in Parliament that they would cut Feed in Tariffs (FITs)- the rate at which energy companies are obliged to reward houses who generate their own energy through measures like solar panels- from 43p per kilowatt hour to 21p per kilowatt hour- effectively halving the rate of return for all small-scale solar projects.
Speaking the Commons on Monday, Dr Whitehead said:
“The Minister said at the solar photovoltaics conference last Friday that he “had not come to kill” solar PV tariffs. Does he accept that these appalling policy lurches—two in the past three months—are killing the solar industry’s future, as was reflected by all those present at that conference?
Will he now review the time scale for the most recent lurch, and at the very least extend it so that those who currently have contracts up to when there was originally going to be a review can carry out that work?
Otherwise, no one will ever believe anything that he says about any tariffs in the future.”
Speaking after the debate, Dr Whitehead added:
“This latest lurch by the Government is a massive blow to the emerging solar industry in the UK. Hundreds of small scale and community power schemes- including possibly schemes in Southampton- will now be under threat, with tenants and residents facing higher fuel bills as a result.
“There now appears to be utter chaos and contradiction between the green policy goals espoused at DECC and the anti-green growth stance of the Treasury. The result is market where investor confidence in government promises on green measures is shot to pieces and where the UK could miss out on a critical opportunity to become a world leader in new renewable technologies.”
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