Much hope was pinned on Copenhagen and Cancun as a way of highlighting the case for renewable energy and prompting large scale investment in green energy. Government’s globally assumed that private investment would pour in, helping to bring the big world economies closer to meeting climate change targets, win votes and of course revitalise struggling economies with a vibrant green energy industry. As it was subsequently found out, the world financial crisis was such that rather than see the universal growth of green energy, some sectors were forced to make drastic, indeed devastating cut backs.

The world recession has had a detrimental effect in certain areas of renewable energy. Certainly Spain, once a world leader in solar pv thanks to its feed-in tariff policy suffered greatly from cuts made to the tariff by Zapatero’s government in the face of a Spanish economy on the brink of collapse. However, according to the Director of the UK Carbon Trust Ben Sykes, the recession has not necessarily meant a downturn in all sectors,

“The big, exciting stuff that was going to come out of a very successful global conference didn’t happen, but you have steady growth in a number of technology areas”

The world of finance certainly recognises that despite cut backs in certain areas of renewable energy, other sectors including solar pv have continued to go from strength to strength in the UK. Ever since the introduction of the feed-in tariff in April 2010, investment in solar energy has rocketed with an impressive uptake in solar panels taking advantage of the healthy profits to be made. With regards to efficiencies, the head of HSBC’s climate change centre of excellence Nick Robins stated,

“The learning curve has accelerated during the crisis, particularly in solar.”

The UK solar feed-in tariff, legislation which guarantees fixed, premium rates for units of energy either consumed or fed back into the national grid is designed to incentivise investment in solar energy, traditionally expensive to set up. Already the uptake in solar on the back of the tariffs has exceeded expectations with over 10,000 panels installed so far. As was predicted, the uptake in solar along with the growing competition in the UK market has caused prices to fall a little bit closer to ‘grid parity’, the holy grail of renewable energy. According to energy expert Anthony Froggatt, Chinese manufacturing volumes have led to grid costs being the equivalent of nuclear in the US.

A poll released this ahead of the World Climate Day on Friday revealed that the British public has a keen concern regarding action to tackle climate change. The poll, carried out by Christian Aid illustrates a general consensus of concern and awareness of government policies with regards to matters concerning meeting climate change targets.

With the UK government passing the Energy Act and establishing the Department of Energy and Climate Change, they have taken important steps to both meet their climate change objectives and revitalise the economy through the nurturing of a new green economy. Certainly, with the European elections at the fore, many of the electorate are taking a much closer look at the green policies of prospective political parties. Indeed, the results of the survey were thus,

·          77 per cent believe the UK government ought to do more to reduce carbon emissions

·          57 per cent say a political party’s climate policies would influence how they vote

·          70 per cent want the UK government to take a leading role in international climate change negotiations

·          90 per cent have taken steps to reduce their own carbon emissions

With these results in mind, the importance of recent climate change legislation affecting the solar industry will be even more in focus. The feed-in tariff provisions set out in last years Energy Act will become a reality next year as a mechanism designed to kick start investment in the fledgling industry.

With the UK government going through a consultancy process to determine the optimum tariff structure to energise the much hyped green economy, the YouGov report findings such as those above will offer a stark reminder that the public are now fully aware of the importance of government action in determining the success or failure of the UK solar industry.

The announcement last week that the largest onshore wind farm in Europe is to be expanded is set to offer a massive boost to renewables in the UK. The announcement by the Scottish first minister Alex Salmond will see the construction of a further 36 wind turbines on the site. The permission to extend the East Renfrewshire site by the government will be seen as a step towards realizing some of the rhetoric spoken this week in regards to a ‘green new deal’ in Britain.

Gordon Brown’s announcement at the beginning of this year about the introduction of a green new deal, was a reference to the reforms made by the Roosevelt administration in the face of the 1930s depression which gripped the world. Many were encouraged by the language of the announcement, believing it to be a real indication of a move towards a green economy. Certainly, the extension of the Eaglesham Moor wind farm site will go some way to contributing to the low-carbon economy espoused by politicians in recent months.

In real terms, it is likely that the wind farm expansion will lead to the creation of around 300 jobs and will make the site the first over 300MW in Europe with a total capacity of 462MW, enough to power up to 250,000 homes. As the UK government seeks to meet its climate change targets of cutting carbon emissions 80% by 2050, the Whitelee wind farm will provide evidence that there is at least some tangible work being done to both establish a green economy and meet its targets.

Speaking about the expansion of the wind farm expansion, Alex Salmon commented,

“Whitelee in its current form is already flying the flag for onshore wind power in Europe. The planned extension, which I am delighted to announce today, will enable the wind farm to harness its comparative and competitive advantage in wind generated energy within Europe.

He went on to add, “It has the infrastructure, the expertise and the capacity to continue to develop in the future.”

As a solution to the global economic crisis, Gordon Brown has called for an international ‘Green New Deal’ in order to spark investment in new technologies and create jobs in the emerging renewable sector. In reference to F.D. Roosevelt’s economic plan to revitalise the US economy during the Great Depression the Prime Minister explained that he believes striving to evolve the UK in to a low carbon economy will create jobs while at the same time help the government to meet its climate change targets.

The British government has already set the target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050 and have taken some measures to instigate this reduction. Overseeing this gradual change towards a low carbon economy will be the Secretary of State for the Department for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Milliband. The minister has already advocated government investment in renewable energy technology and research and was a key figure behind last November’s Energy Act which set out the main provisions for government funding for green energy and paved the way for the implementation of a feed-in tariff in 2010.

Despite these changes, some environmental lobbies and members of the renewable industry have criticized the government for not providing enough funding for green projects and not setting out a concrete breakdown of the feed-in tariff which will be necessary to attract investment as it has done for example in Germany. Spokesman for Friends for the Earth, Andy Atkins summed up the frustration in certain circles by commenting,

“We need urgent and decisive action, not more token gestures and hot air.”

Gordon Brown is confident that the green sector will provide some relief to the recession in the jobs that it creates, not just in the UK but globally and he was keen to make this point last week at a summit in London. The prime minister produced the results of an independent report which states that the renewable energy sector will generate around 400,000 new jobs within the next 8 years meaning that by 2017 1.3 million people will be involved in the renewable sector in the UK.

During his historic visit to Washington last week for his meeting with US President Barack Obama, Brown stated that it was imperative both for the economy and the environment that changes are made to the way governments approach renewable funding stating,

“We know that the more we are able to co-ordinate these measures internationally, the more confidence and certainty we will build and the more investment we will be able to bring forward.  That’s why I want to create a global ‘green new deal’ that will pave the way for a low-carbon recovery and to help us build tomorrow’s green economy today.”

Key to this shift towards a low carbon economy is the feed-in tariff which has already proved extremely successful where it has been implemented elsewhere. Members of the industry have already expressed the need for a tariff which is more than a token gesture and is able to attract investors through coherent, long term, viable contracts. Some have suggested that a rate of 50p per unit of kWh energy fed-in to the grid by renewable systems under 5 Megawatts would be sufficient to help Britain catch up with nations such as Germany where feed-in tariffs are now well established. The feed-in tariff rate is crucial as it will offset the cost of producing energy by renewable means by offering investors long term contracts with fixed rates for their megawatts production.

Andy Atkins of Friends of the Earth, regarding the summit and the need for government action on tariffs and project funding added,

“Today’s summit is an encouraging development, but ministers must grasp the scale of the challenge we face. We need urgent and decisive action, not more token gestures and hot air”.