Isra-Mart srl:UK microgeneration tracker offers insight for feed-in tariff review

www.isra-mart.com

Isra-Mart srl news:

An environmental consultancy has designed a free online tool for people wishing to track the uptake of feed-in tariff installations and microgeneration projects, such as solar panels and wind turbines.

The Microgeneration Index, launched by AEA on Monday, shows the speed of small-scale renewable installations in each council area. Using data from schemes that have applied for feed-in tariff (FIT) accreditation prior to 31 December 2010, it allows users to analyse microgeneration installations across every local authority and presents a series of league tables summarising the performance of leading councils.

Colin McNaught, AEA knowledge leader for renewable energy, said the index will be a valuable tool for people tracking the uptake of the feed-in tariff and microgeneration projects across the UK, especially those interested in responding to the government's forthcoming fast-track review of feed-in tariff incentives for larger solar installations and anaerobic digestion projects.

"Our analysis also shows that the FIT has only met a small fraction of the installations and carbon dioxide savings that the Department of Energy and Climate Change expected," he said.

"This is not surprising because the policy has only been in operation for a short time and the lead-in time for many of the larger microgeneration schemes means that these have not yet applied for the incentive. This makes predicting the future uptake more difficult and the task of the FIT review more challenging."

Critics of the government's decision to review the level of support for solar installations earlier than expected argue that this uptake of projects undermines ministers' claims that cuts to incentives are required to stop the feed-in tariff scheme running out of money ahead of schedule.

But the government maintains that their concerns over the upcoming project pipeline are justified and there is evidence that a flurry of large solar farms could eat into the incentives available for domestic installations.

Each dataset used by the AEA tool shows the percentage split between wind, hydro, solar photovoltaic, anaerobic digestion, and micro combined heat and power installations. It also compares local authority data to the total microgeneration in the UK.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the data shows solar PV had the highest growth of all the technologies since the launch of the feed-in tariff, increasing 84 per cent to 48 MWe. Wind power capacity grew by 34 per cent to 14.3 MWe and hydro capacity increased by 27 per cent to 9 MWe.

Orkney recorded the most installed capacity at more than 2MWe, Cornwall has the second-highest capacity at 1.6 MWe, which is largely a result of solar PV installations.

Other regions show highly variable patterns of adoption, with solar PV dominating in urban areas and a more diverse range of technologies in rural areas.