The Government’s decision to review the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme is one of those classic cases of being damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Having waited years for incentive schemes to help kickstart the renewables market while casting envious glances towards Germany, Portugal, and Spain; less than a year into our FiT programme it is all up in the air again. This breaks the Golden Rule of not moving the goalposts once you have put an incentive in place. However, there are mitigating circumstances here.
The FIT scheme was not intended to be an alternative to the equities markets, but to stimulate the generation of household renewable power. Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne is, rightly, concerned that the subsidies are, instead, making their way into the pockets of so-called “shrewd investors”. He has fast-tracked a review of the scheme and it looks as if arrays over 50kW will be made less attractive to investors after April next year.
This move is arbitrary, but is probably right if it stops people building solar farms in fields. We have so much roof space available we should be using that first.
Poverty
Food prices are on the rise and we are not able to feed the seven billion people in the world; let alone considering the additional two billion who will be around in 2050 (the equivalent of two Indias). The G20 countries are becoming increasingly concerned about food security – global poverty rather puts renewable energy arguments in the shade. So let’s keep the fields for growing food and fill up otherwise useless roof space with PV.
Food prices are on the rise and we are not able to feed the seven billion people in the world; let alone considering the additional two billion who will be around in 2050 (the equivalent of two Indias). The G20 countries are becoming increasingly concerned about food security – global poverty rather puts renewable energy arguments in the shade. So let’s keep the fields for growing food and fill up otherwise useless roof space with PV.
However, the Government now has to be very careful that it does not put the renewable energy market into reverse. More than 22,000 installations have registered for FiTs since their launch last April – hugely increasing our installed renewable energy capacity. The majority of the registered installations are individual homes and 95 per cent of them are using photovoltaic (PV) panels.
It is a tricky one for the Government, but whatever decision is taken it must communicate clearly where the strategy is going. The fact there is a review at all is increasing uncertainty about the whole FiT scheme. This has already driven some investors away and put the brakes on the smaller individual systems too. What the industry needs is a quick decision to remove the uncertainty.
The HVCA will be keeping a close eye on this and will continue to chase down answers from government and transmit them to members.
David Frise is head of sustainability at the HVCA whose members are committed to delivering high quality, responsible and sustainable building services solutions. dfrise@hvca.org.uk
Read more at www.hvca.org.uk
Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowmybackyard/2394376192
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