This morning the Department of Energy and Climate Change made an announcement the renewables industry has been expecting for some time: it’s bringing forward a review of the Feed-in-Tariff – the very successful scheme launched last year to reward renewable energy generators for their generation. As Juliet wrote on our blog last week, it is the huge popularity of large-scale solar schemes which has sparked the review.
In a ministerial statement, Chris Huhne, secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said: “Since the Spending Review, I have become increasingly concerned about the prospect of large scale solar PV projects under FITs, which was not fully anticipated in the original scheme and could, if left unchecked, take a disproportionate amount of available funding or even break the cap on total funding. Several large solar installations have already received planning permission. Industry projections indicate there could be many more in the planning system. In light of this uncertainty and the risk that such schemes could push FITs uptake off trajectory and may make the Spending Review savings difficult, I have decided to end the potential for damaging speculation and bring forward the review of the Scheme to look at ways of correcting these early teething problems.”
In response to the announcement, Good Energy’s CEO, Juliet Davenport, issued the following statement:
“FITs have proven to be the single most effective way of driving new investment in renewables in the UK. Thousands of households and businesses have signed up as a result of the incentive and Good Energy counts around 10% of these as customers. It is essential that the review builds on this hard work and momentum. The Government’s review represents a crucial window of opportunity to build a revamped FIT system, creating long-term certainty for all consumers and investors. This review could be the key to meeting the UK’s renewable targets and driving down carbon emissions - it’s critical they get it right.”
People who’ve already installed solar PV and are claiming their FIT can get some reassurance that the government won’t be moving the goalposts. Mr Huhne’s statement went on to say: “The government will not act retrospectively and any changes to generation tariffs implemented as a result of the review will only affect new entrants into the FITs scheme. Installations which are already accredited for FITs at the time will not be affected.”
And for those who are still considering it, rest assured that Good Energy will continue to lobby for a robust feed-in tariff which encourages independent generation at all scales – and will put the UK on the pathway to a 100% renewable future.
