Blogs

Greg Barker is misunderstood. He has come under heavy criticism from those within and without the solar industry in the UK and I can see why. It is never easy to be the hatchet man when there is a tight budget in the offing and it is even more difficult to know deep down that the system (political and economic) you are forced to work with is far from ideal and constantly places you between a rock and a hard place.

The announcement this week from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on solar feed-in tariffs (FiT) came as shock to the solar industry. But this shock wasn’t just from the FiT reduction, as Government had widely flagged its intention to reduce the subsidy designed to make solar panel installations economically viable – even if the size of the cut was larger than had been hoped.

Last week the Solar Power UK conference was held in Birmingham and the keynote speaker was Greg Barker, Minister for Energy and Climate Change. It was rumoured that he would make a ‘big’ announcement but, in the end, this did not happen. The announcement was leaked in the following days and was finally released by DECC on Monday  October 31. The result: a large cut in feed-in tariff rates from the end of this year.

At the opening of SMA’s UK HQ, Marko Werner Chief Sales and Marketing Officer & Board Member of PV inverter market leader SMA Solar Technology AG and Henry Dziuba, the Managing Director of SMA Solar UK Limited, spoke about the ramifications of the impending FiT cuts.

On October 14 I made a prediction on what I thought about the nature of the pending FiT cuts. As it turns out, that prediction was correct, and I would now like to help members of the industry…

With the deadline of December the 12th all too close, the question I am being asked is what do we need to get done by the deadline?

It was perhaps a foregone conclusion that the money-spinning solar industry, growing at break-neck speed on the back of generous Government subsidy had to be tamed down to sustainable levels, sooner or later.

If there is one thing you can be sure of in this world, it is that the law of unintended consequences follows Government plans like autumn follows summer. The fact is, if Government launches an initiative then there will be a multitude of clever people trying to find ways to use that initiative to their own advantage. Often initiatives are not used in the way they were intended — and many do not end up benefitting those to whom they were originally aimed.

After sitting at my desk for the best part of half an hour refreshing my screen, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) finally published what we have all been waiting for: the consultation on the comprehensive review of feed-in tariffs. Shortly after 10.30am the new rates were announced, and the UK solar…

DECC have just announced the proposed new Solar PV FIT rates…