Isra-Mart srl: Climate minister offers olive branch to angry solar developers

www.isra-mart.com

Climate minister Greg Barker has today attempted to quell anger among solar developers over the government's decision to impose deep cuts to feed-in tariff (FIT) incentives for large solar projects, insisting he remains fully committed to developing a successful solar industry in the UK.

Speaking to BusinessGreen, Barker defended the decision to cut feed-in tariff incentives for solar installations with over 50kW of capacity by between 40 and 70 per cent – a move that developers have warned will make large-scale solar projects economically unviable.

He insisted the government has been forced to impose the deep cuts to ensure the feed-in tariff scheme does not run out of money.

"It became clear from the 500-plus submissions we received that the demand for feed-in tariff subsidy far exceeded the £860m we had secured in the Comprehensive Spending Review," he said. "At the time that sum was seen as a good endorsement of the industry, but we have seen a fall in costs for solar that was unanticipated by the previous Labour government when it set the tariff levels, and it was clear that had we left them at the current level the scheme would have been swamped."

The government's consultation exercise revealed that more than 80 per cent of respondents opposed the deep cuts to the incentives, with many calling for more modest cuts. There were also widespread calls for the coalition to retain higher levels of support for community-scale installations planned for schools, hospitals and offices.

But the government argued that the industry failed to put forward a convincing alternative plan and Barker insisted the financial limits imposed on the scheme meant the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was not in a position to scale back the proposed cuts.

"I am a supporter of solar and think it has an exciting role to play in the UK's energy mix," he said. "But I am dealing with a finite pot of money and I can only spend it once."

He also argued that the cuts would allow the rollout of sub-50kW solar installations to accelerate. "My priority is to support the rollout of domestic and small-scale solar systems, and there are now hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses that will benefit from solar and other microgeneration technologies," he said.

However, the failure to deliver some form of compromise plan prompted criticism from opposition parties that accused the government of failing to listen to the results of its own consultation exercise.

"From the very start, the Tory-led government's handling of the FIT review has been a fiasco, with ministers looking for someone to blame after taking a rash and ill-thought decision," said shadow energy and climate minister Huw Irranca-Davies. "Industry and green groups alike will struggle to place any trust in this government's ability to hold any future reviews."

His comments were echoed by Green Party leader Caroline Lucas, who accused the government of undermining the UK's competitiveness in the fast-expanding global solar market.

"The suspicion that this consultation was simply a box-ticking exercise has been confirmed, and despite the fact that 81 per cent of respondents disagreed with the proposed reduction of support for solar, the government is forging ahead with its policy of organised underperformance as we sit back and watch countries such as Germany soar ahead of us," she said. "This is bad news for jobs, bad news for the economy and bad news for the environment."

The confirmation of the cuts also brought an angry response from many within the solar industry. Howard Johns of the Solar Trade Association said the cuts had left the solar industry in a mess, with many investors walking away from planned investments in solar farm projects. "We want to meet with ministers to find a way forward as a matter of urgency," he said.

Barker told BusinessGreen he was open to undertaking a renewed assessment of solar's future role in the UK and willing to meet with the industry to discuss its concerns.

"We need to look at the potential for [large-scale] solar and see if it can play a role alongside other large-scale renewables," he said. "My door is always open to the industry."

In related news, a High Court judge today ruled that the group of solar developers seeking a judicial review against the government over its feed-in tariff review could proceed with the case against energy and climate change secretary Chris Huhne.