The Department of Energy and Climate Change, Government of the UK, decided to cut solar domestic tariff by 64 percent to 4.39p/kWh instead of the original proposal of cuts of up to 87 percent to 1.63p/kWh.
Government’s decision to revise the rate is a welcome move for the solar industry in the UK, the industry reacted.
While the rate cut is not as severe as the government proposed, the announcement is still bound to result in significant job losses and consolidation in the UK’s solar industry as well as through the supply chain, which is very disappointing, said James Owen, commercial director, Public Power Solutions, said:
Currently the rate is 12p/kWh. The new tariffs will come into force from 8 February.
For a modest commercial rooftop scheme the size of a school or small commercial building, the Feed-in Tariff rate will be 4.59p/kWh.
Owen says that the move to cut solar tariffs will adversely affect the ordinary people wanting to invest in local solar schemes. There is no dedicated support for community solar or social housing.
“This year has been a very challenging time for the UK’s renewable energy industry. But, as a solar developer focusing uniquely on the public sector, PPS remains confident that we can weather the storm and look forward to being able to deliver utility-scale solar projects without subsidy in 2016 and beyond,” Owen added.
Rajani Baburajan