Unclear planning for renewable energy Feed-in-Tariffs (FiT’s) by Climate Change Secretary Greg Barker has once again been highlighted by events in Germany according to industry experts.
“Germany has the most developed Photovoltaic (PV) industry in the world,” said Ken Moss, CEO of mO3 Power the UK’s largest solar developer.
“The German Federal Network Agency has imaginatively used FiT’s to develop their renewable power resources. Germany has 17,000 MW of clean; safe solar capacity installed, Britain has 40 MW but already Greg Barker is suggesting a 10% reduction in Fit’s for 2012?” he said.
Throughout 2010 there have been suggestions that Germany would be cutting the rate of FiT’s (by as much as 15%) but last week the Federal Network Agency announced a rate of tariff that is responsive to the growth of PV in the Country.
The German FiT will increase by 2.5% if PV installations do not reach 2.5 GW in the next year. The FiT will remain static for installations of up to 3.5 GW and will only increase when installations top 4.5 GW.
By comparison, installations in UK are unlikely to reach 250MW in 2011.
“The UK Government clearly adopted the success of German FiT’s as a blueprint for the PV industry in the Britain but they are now making decisions solely based on cost cutting. Britain needs a politically secure, safe renewable power industry. To cut off its development in its infancy robs the country of a huge number of jobs, economic growth and any chance of achieving our EU carbon commitments.”
1 Comment
'By comparison, installations in UK are unlikely to reach 250MW in 2011.'
Good! Why are we paying 40p a unit for renewable electricity when we can do offshore wind at less than a quarter of that subsidy?
Why are we developing solar in the UK when our greatest energy demand is in winter, and it produces 3-5 times more in summer?
Ridiculous technology to start introducing now. Module prices will have to fall a lot more before it's worth the UK investing here.