The UK government has triggered the reduction of financial support for larger scale solar projects under the feed-in tariff (FIT) incentive scheme that it launched last April.
It has proposed to lower the support for all new photovoltaic installations larger than 50kW, meaning projects that would have received 30.7 pence per kWh will now receive between 8.5 pence and 19 pence per kWh.
Projects of between 250kW and 5MW will receive the lowest rates of 8.5 pence per kWh, while projects of between 50kW and 150kW will get 19 pence per kWh and all capacities in between will get 15 pence per kWh.
Due to a lack of uptake by farm-scale solar and anaerobic digestion projects, the government has raised the tariff for anaerobic digestion projects to 14 pence per kWh for projects below 250kW, with installations of up to 500kW getting one penny per kWh less.
The consultation follows the government’s launch of a fast-track review of the FIT for projects over 50kW after planning applications were made for solar projects with a combined capacity of 169MW. The government said it is concerned that large projects could soak up the funding that would otherwise finance smaller solar schemes or be used to subsidise other renewable energy projects.
UK Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said, ‘I want to make sure that we capture the benefits of fast falling costs in solar technology to allow even more homes to benefit from FITs, rather than see that money go in bumper profits to a small number of big investors.
‘These proposals aim to rebalance the scheme and put a stop to the threat of larger-scale solar soaking up the cash. The FITs scheme was never designed to be a profit generator for big business and financiers.’
PV FIT schemes in Germany, France and Spain have been reduced sharply over the past year.
The government has promised not to act retrospectively on existing FIT contracts and said those that are already accredited will not be affected.
No comments:
Post a Comment