Greg Barker speech at Solar Power UK confirms FiT cuts
The Solar Power UK conference is now on its second day and many Solar PV industry leaders were waiting in anticipation for the speech by the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, Greg Barker.
Tweets from Greg Barker earlier in the week suggested that the speech would mostly be with regards to maintaining growth across all renewable energy sectors, yet the fear for the Solar PV industry was the threat of a dramatic reduction on the feed-in-tariffs.
Barker made his speech at the ICC in Birmingham at 12.30pm today and those who have been reading his preparations were probably not very surprised at the outcome..
The speech began with an introduction to Barker’s Power to the People paper and then went on to discuss how the coalition government claimed they would be the ‘greenest government yet’. Barker went on to state that the government would deliver on this statement by pushing renewable energy budgets and introducing full-scale renewable retrofit projects with the introduction of the Green Deal.
In terms of Solar PV, the confirmation is that the feed-in-tariff will decrease, probably for both domestic and commercial installations, was clear. Barker stated that the reduction in prices for Solar PV products should be reflected in the FiT’s, and suggested that the growth we have seen since April 2010 in Solar PV had exceeded what the government planned. Barker quoted that “Solar is burning through the budget at an unsustainable rate”, implying that more of the government’s overall renewable energy budget would be focused on other methods of renewable energy generation.
In terms of large-scale commercial projects which Energi PLC regularly design and install, Barker backed up his decision earlier in 2011 to reduce the feed-in-tariff rates for larger PV arrays. In a bold statement, Barker stated “Had I not acted when I did, the run on the budget could have been disastrous”.
The overall outcome for the future of renewable energy as a whole seemed positive from Barker’s perspective, with the approach going forward being that the Green Deal, Renewable Heat Incentive and feed-in-tariffs must work together.
The good news for companies such as Energi, who are established in the industry, is that strong buying power and good working relationships should enable us to reduce our costs to customers from April 2012. The result of this is that the impact on the feed-in-tariff cuts will be reduced and customers can still benefit from a good return on their investment. Full details of the changes are expected to be announced by DECC either later this year or early 2012.
For full details of the feed-in-tariff and how Solar PV can benefit your business, contact Energi for further information.
To read the full speech by Greg Barker click here.
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