The
United Kingdom’s solar and renewable energy sectors have blasted government
plans to cut subsidies for solar farms.
According
to local press reports, the government is expected to review the country’s
support schemes for large-scale installations in the next few weeks.
PV farm operators in the U.K. are paid
from fees levied on household energy bills. According to The
Guardian newspaper, the owners
of the approximately 200 solar farms across the country receive thousands of
pounds under the subsidy program. That may soon change, however.
The
U.K.’s Solar
Trade Association expressed concern about a possible review of the Renewable
Obligation (RO) and said it was expecting to soon meet with Secretary of State
Ed Davey about the matter.
"The
STA is seeking to get clarity for members from officials. Hundreds of millions
of pounds is currently invested in projects not due to be built until next year
and the STA is very concerned to safeguard investment as well as the health of
the U.K. industry."
The
trade organization added that support levels for ground-mounted solar already
dropped 70% in the first two years of the feed-in tariff. “RO support levels for
ground-mounted solar were equal to offshore wind two years ago, or 2 Renewable
Obligation Certificates (ROC), but have since dropped a further 30% since to the
current 1.4 ROC.
"We
are disappointed to read that DECC [Department of Energy and Climate Change] is
launching another review on the solar industry," said STA CEO Paul Barwell.
"Investor confidence and market stability is absolutely essential in order to
deliver sustained cost reductions for consumers and a healthy solar industry for
U.K. plc. We are obviously on tenterhooks to see what changes DECC is proposing
to make."
Barwell
added that the industry has been concerned about what appears to be a coming
shift in support towards mid-scale rooftops when the U.K. policy framework is
inadequate for these scales.
"We
have been pressing for reforms to the user-friendly feed-in tariffs for nearly a
year to address this, something that must now happen urgently. We hope DECC will
announce a major increase in the amount of mid/large solar roofs that can be
delivered under FITs. Any changes to the RO for roof-mounted solar would
undermine this objective because it is delivering very little rooftop
deployment."
Barwell
also warned that a hasty push for cheap solar would come at the cost of
achieving quality in the solar farm industry, which he stressed was essential to
retain public support.
Likewise
responding with alarm at the news was Nina Skorupska, chief exec of the U.K.’s
Renewable Energy Association (REA). She said a new report by the organization
"shows that where policies are clear and stable, our industry can attract
investment, create jobs and increase U.K. green energy. We’ve seen this in
renewable electricity and we’re beginning to see it in renewable heat too.
"We
also emphasize though that drastic changes to policy – to which solar power is
no stranger – can lead to job losses and damage investor confidence across the
renewables industry. We urge DECC to tread very carefully if it does indeed plan
to review the support mechanisms for large scale solar. This sector is creating
jobs and bringing down costs rapidly."
The Guardian reported that, according to sources, the
"overall level of support for solar will stay the same," which may mean that
subsidies for ground-mounted installations will indeed decline while funding for
rooftop arrays will rise. A consultation on the matter is expected in the coming
weeks.
Speaking
to newspaper, Nick Boyle, CEO of Lightsource Renewable Energy, one of the U.K.'s
largest PV developers, warned that
"constant tariff cuts and government pressure act to undermine the work we do to
provide clean, secure energy and put into serious question the very momentum we
have worked so hard to build."
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