Opinions

Much has been said and many column inches dedicated to just what the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s proposed changes to renewable energy subsidies will do to the industry itself. But more often than not the secondary victims – those outside of the industry and, as a result, overlooked – will be hit just as hard, writes Liam Stoker.

According to the latest release of Solar Media’s UK Ground-Mount Report 3 – Opportunity Pipeline report, the UK’s pipeline of large-scale solar farms (>250kW) has grown now to 3.3GW. This is due mainly to an increase in applications received by LPAs on 22 July, and an uptick in rejected (or called-in) sites to appeals.

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.

The ballot papers are out, canvassing has entered overdrive and yet still energy and the environment appear to be little more than afterthoughts for the four candidates for the Labour Party leadership. What does Labour’s failure to mount a challenge to the Tory’s green energy culls say about the party?

With potential boundary lines drawn around planning application submissions on 22 July 2015 and buildout under ROs by 31 March 2016, what DECC is effectively proposing is a cap on large-scale solar farm deployment under ROCs, with the final capacity installed based upon what the industry can manage to do now over the next seven and a half months.

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.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has caused what could be potentially the most active day in ground-mounted solar applications seen yet in the industry, directly as a result of its proposals to change the Renewable Obligation (RO) goalposts for the solar industry.

The proposed cuts to solar subsidies has attracted the ire of the renewables industry since they were unveiled by the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) late last month, but stinging criticism has poured in from unexpected sources too.

The fragmented nature of the solar industry is making it easier for the government to divide and conquer the sector. Alex Fornal argues that giving solar one unified voice could pay dividends