Solar–no-sense
By Lucy Pedler | The Green Register
I was discussing with my family tonight who we might put on the bonfire this Saturday 5th November if given the choice and I said I’d like to choose Climate Change Minister Gregory Barker. This is because of the spectacularly disappointing decision announced yesterday to cut the Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) for micro-generation by more than half, reducing the FiT from 43p to 21p as of next April.
We all knew that the basis upon which FiT’s were introduced was that the unit payment would drop off over time but today’s decision is really unacceptable – both in terms of the degree to which it has been cut and the date when it comes into effect. Installers have been left with an unreasonably short time to adjust to this and their customers will understandably be furious if they don’t get the technologies installed by 12th December.
What really bugs me is the fallout from this decision: all the jobs that will be lost and the loss of faith in renewables that the public, already highly sceptical of the technologies, will have.
Whatever one’s opinion of the FiT’s – and there are many detractors – there are several positive outcomes so to date. According to Ofgen, the scheme has increased the amount of solar power installed in the UK from 30 to 321 megawatts (from before the subsidy started in 2010 to October this year). FiT’s have also kick-started many small businesses, created jobs and generally raised awareness of the fact that we have to start to decarbonise the grid right now and one of the many ways (although not the most efficient cost to benefit option) is to generate power from the sun.
With such a good start, it seems madness to pull the rug out from under micro-generation so fast and so soon. As shadow energy and climate change minister Caroline Flint said in response to the news “With growth flat-lining everywhere else today’s announcement threatens to strangle at birth the solar industry.”
