Many energy companies are targeting landowners to persuade them to use their land as solar farms allowing them an extra income stream, which to some flies in the face of the strategy to encourage microgeneration by households, businesses and charitable bodies.
However, the Government (Department of Energy and Climate Change) has decided to review the tariffs for the FIT as a result of this uptake in Solar PV by landowners citing Chris Huhne "Large scale solar installations weren't anticipated under the FITs scheme we inherited and I'm concerned this could mean that money meant for people who want to produce their own green electricity has the potential to be directed towards large scale commercial solar projects."
However to reassure existing projects he also stated " The Government will not act retrospectively and any changes to generation tariffs implemented as a result of the review will only affect new entrants into the FITs scheme. Installations which are already accredited for FITs at the time will not be affected".
The upshot is that so long as the effect is to encourage those that it should be aimed at (hence the term microgeneration) all well and good, but we do need clarity for long term investment in renewables and the policy needs to reflect/reinforce this.
On another note the announcement of the tariffs for the Renewable Heat Incentive are imminent, let's hope they reflect the rhetoric about the Government's green credentials!
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