CSR good for green energy

By Juliet Davenport




After many weeks of speculation about where the axe would fall in the Comprehensive Spending Review, Chancellor George Osborne has unveiled his cuts – and it looks like pretty good news for renewables.

The Good Energy headlines are:

• Feed-in Tariffs are being protected until their first scheduled review in 2013 (a 10% cut in the rate for solar PV in 2012 was always part of the plan).

• The Government confirmed it’s going ahead with the Renewable Heat Incentive from 2011-12.

I’m delighted that Energy Secretary Chris Huhne and his ministers have done such a great job at protecting the future of the UK’s renewables industry, at least for now. The growth in microgeneration installations since FiT was first launched in April shows what an important role these tariffs have to play in driving renewable energy generation amongst individuals, communities and businesses. By helping  people to both produce and use energy locally and making it a visible part of the local community, people will value their energy more and use it less – and make bigger carbon savings overall.

We’re also really pleased that the RHI will go ahead with only a few adjustments from the original  announcement. Currently, only 1% of total heat demand comes from renewable sources which the Government clearly recognises needs to rise if we are to meet our renewable energy targets. Good Energy has already proved that an RHI can work, having created our own  award-winning version, HotRocs, in September 2008 which now supports over 450 solar thermal users, resulting in a reduction in CO2 emissions of 270 tonnes a year. It doesn’t look as if the Government will be following the financing model we have trialled (a levy on gas suppliers) but we look forward to seeing how they plan to implement it.
 
Overall, today’s announcements go a long way towards reducing the uncertainty that had been hanging over the renewables sector for months – and should see private investment in microgeneration technologies start to pick up again. But if you’ve been planning to put solar PV on your roof, you'd better get on with it – because the published rate is only guaranteed until 2013.