Guest Blog

Solar Trade Association head of external affairs Leonie Greene discusses its efforts to lobby government since the feed-in tariff proposals were made public and what you, the industry, can do to help.

I have met a number of officials from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) over the years and hold them in very high regard. Make no mistake, these are smart people we’re dealing with. Which makes the recent Feed in Tariff (FiT) review all the more perplexing.

Well it’s been a little while since I typed one of these. There are a few reasons (including a broken leg!), but mostly it’s due to being occupied with other projects – most significantly finishing the new IET Solar PV code of practice, which I am pleased to say should be published later this month.

With the Department of Energy and Climate Change publishing their devastating proposals for the feed-in tariff scheme, I’ve written to the Prime Minister to ask him to explain his government’s policy. I don’t hold out much hope for a response but needed to get this off my chest.

The government’s dismantling of solar support is not only spooking investors but will also fail to translate into cheaper bills for the wider public, warns Abid Kazim.

The government’s dismantling of solar support is not only spooking investors but will also fail to translate into cheaper bills for the wider public, warns Abid Kazim.

The government’s dismantling of solar support is not only spooking investors but will also fail to translate into cheaper bills for the wider public, warns Abid Kazim.

Parker Dann Town Planning Consultancy’s Debbie Marriage discusses how the joint DECC/DCLG statement on fast-tracking proposals will put even more pressure on not just the energy industry, but on local planning authorities, housing developers and other sectors too.

Although deployment of solar has been traditionally slow in Ireland, Sean Markey argues that Lightsource’s recent leap into the Irish solar market could help kickstart a solar revolution.

Warnings of a capacity crunch this Winter have strengthened, not weakened, the importance of installing solar on commercial buildings, according to Hive Energy’s Tim Purbrick.