Solar is a better idea than ever as time is running out. Are Feed in Tariffs a victim of their own success?
Breaking news today in the Financial Times suggests that the UK government’s Feed-in Tariff review, currently set for April 2012, could be brought forward in a bid to stifle demand following the enormous success of the scheme since it was launched in April 2010. Indications from the government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) suggest that they wish to divert investment in the extensive roll out of domestic solar across the UK and focus on larger scale renewables such as tidal and offshore wind energy.
Whilst this sounds like an acceptable argument, it is totally at odds with the repeated statements made previously by the government that it wishes to protect and uphold the UK solar market.
There are several articles on the web today, including the Financial Times (see link below), which suggest that the government will be reviewing the Feed-in Tariffs ahead of the April 2012 date, perhaps even as early as next week.
Reg Illingworth of Altereco says: “This is certainly bad news for the solar industry. The government have promised something to people, who are finally catching on to the enormous benefits of going solar, and now they are going back on their word. This doesn’t help to instil confidence in the industry for the consumers who are strapped for cash in these tough economic times.”
Mr Illingworth does stress however, that Altereco is trying to focus on the positives. “We know that the industry has suffered from setbacks in the past but we are hoping that at Altereco we can be resilient against these blows. We are not merely a solar company, we also supply and install low carbon heating solutions such as air source heat pumps, which hopefully will help our business to survive in these uncertain times.”
The message that Altereco wish to convey is, if you want to take advantage of the high tariffs currently offered for solar, don’t delay, as they could be gone earlier than we thought. They also want to assure anyone who has already plugged in a solar installation, that there has been no mention of changing the tariffs for people who are already signed up to the scheme.
Watch this space for more information.
Read the Financial Times article here
Read the Westminster Blog article here
Read the ClickGreen article here
Read today’s very balanced article on solar PV by Simon Lambert on thisismoney.co.uk here
October 20th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Spot on. Thanks for the very cogent links too – incidentally reading Simon Lambert’s informative article, I was bemused to see AEA mentioned several times as an “environmental consultancy”. AEA – with a mixture of brazenness and idiocy they’ve not changed their acronym – stands for the Atomic Energy Authority, and they are still based at Harwell, a site of the UK’s atomic weapons research programme from the 1950′s onwards. The AEA indicates that it has “divested itself of all nuclear related elements of the business” but this
fine-sounding assertion is utterly belied by the
identity of the CEO since 2004 – Andrew McCree, previously Head of Press & Public Affairs at Dounreay Nuclear Power Station. Apologies for the rather long digression, but I feel it’s helpful to fill in the background on the true identities of many of the helpful “commentators” …
February 14th, 2012 at 12:32 am
Thanks for this glorious article. One other thing is that almost all digital cameras can come equipped with the zoom lens so that more or less of that scene for being included by way of ‘zooming’ in and out. All these changes in focus length are generally reflected inside viewfinder and on substantial display screen right at the back of your camera.
February 19th, 2012 at 8:08 am
We are trying to help promote green energy, if you or anyone at your school has any original content, please contact our site. Thank you.