You heard it here first. Sources recently disclosed to me that we can expect an announcement from the UK government concerning the feed-in-tariff in mid-to-late January.
You may well be aware that while the government has committed to launching a feed-in-tariff program to support renewable energy, it has not confirmed the value of the proposed tariff yet. Numbers have been suggested, but we do not know the exact price per kWh of energy that will be paid to producers and this is causing significant problems for the UK PV industry when advising customers.
The long-awaited announcement will be closely scrutinized to see whether the UK government is serious about meeting its renewable energy targets. Given that the UK is the last major European economy to introduce a feed-in-tariff program (by a considerable margin) the industry will be hoping that the price set will be strong enough to allow the UK to gain some of the lost ground.
One comment
Richard Harris
January 11, 2010Well actually no, I heard it from Kerry Burns of Solarsense UK before Christmas. As you rightly point out though, the UK has been dragging it’s feet massively with it’s slug like progress towards implementing FITs.
Given that the Big 6 energy utilities (who form a cartel in all but official title) are opposed to FITs and have responded to the consultation arguing for lower rates that the Government proposed I think it prudent at the moment not to get too optimisitic.
The rates proposed by the Government are I think about 10p / kWh too low on solar photovoltaics to really make a real difference in the commercial application area. This will be a lost opportunity because there are thousands of big warehouse roofs that could be easily be covered with solar panels if the return on investment was sufficiently enticing. It needs to be better than marginal to make ultra conservative property invetsors and their risk averse consultants move.