Dark Days for Solar

11 September 2015 | Updated 01 January 1970

The Solar Trade Association has condemned the government’s decision this week to prevent bigger commercial solar roofs and smaller solar farms from having any certainty over the Feed-in Tariff (FiTs) they will get once their projects are finished.

Over two weeks ago an alliance of over 100 organisations, including well known organisation and businesses, farming groups, co-operatives and local government representatives wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron expressing ‘great concern’ around then expected changes the FiT support system for small-scale renewables. The alliance included the National Union of Teachers, Diocese of London and the Electrical Contractors Association and IKEA.

The STA argues that the move by the government this week gets rid of the ability to ‘pre-accredit’ to a fixed tariff level, i.e. that complex community and commercial projects that can take longer to complete could have to deal with constantly reducing tariff levels between the start and finish of the project.

The government announcement comes two weeks after the it published proposals for wholesale cuts to FiTs for solar as of January 2016, affecting residential, commercial and solar farms, that will see tariffs cut by up to 87% and the STA contends, could cause the closure of the entire scheme.

“Just 16 out of 2372 respondents supported the proposal to do away with pre-accreditation and yet the government has gone ahead and done it anyway,” complained Leonie Greene, Head of External Affairs STA. “Renewables and solar are all about giving power to the people – this is going in the opposite direction.”

Mr Greene stated that removal of pre-accreditation and the “devastating cuts to tariffs are both going against the tide of public opinion where 80% of people support solar power, more than any other technology”.

Picture: The ending of renewable FiT pre-accreditation by the government has been roundly criticised by the solar energy industry

Article written by Mike Gannon | Published 11 September 2015