A Shot in the Foot

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Doug King

I have often bemoaned multi-headed government and its total inability to communicate between the left-hand and the right-hand, but this takes the biscuit.

In a valiant attempt to increase the uptake of small-scale renewable energy Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greg Clark, signed into legislation on 30th August an order to extend permitted development rights for the installation of solar panels on properties in Conservation Areas and World Heritage sites. This meant that, for the first time, millions of homeowners could consider the option of installing PV from 1st December 2011.

Then, on 31st October, Greg Barker, Minister for Energy and Climate Change, without warning, announced a dramatic cut in the feed in tariff support for domestic PV effective from 12th December 2011.

At a time when solar installers’ order books are full until spring next year, government has given a large proportion of the population just 12 days to install PV and benefit from the feed in tariffs that many others have enjoyed for the last couple of years. I wonder how many cases will end up in the European Court of human rights over this issue?

FIT for Purpose?

Posted on March 21, 2010 by Doug King

The Feed in Tariffs have been almost universally welcomed, but has no-one identified any flaws in the system? Well here’s an issue that people aren’t discussing:

Feed in Tariffs are a public subsidy for the rich.

Feed in Tariffs replace a capital grant scheme. Under the previous scheme anyone who wanted to install renewable energy could get help with the upfront cost. That means that people who didn’t have enough money or insufficient borrowing power could get help to install renewables. OK the previous levels of grant were pitiful, but if the money promised to Feed in Tariffs were made available as grants instead many more people could afford to install small scale renewables.

Under the Feed in Tariffs, the Government will instead subsidise energy generated from renewables, but not the cost of installation. This means that only those who can already afford the cost of installing renewable energy can benefit from it. The tariffs have clearly been set at a level to tempt those with spare cash or the ability to borrow, as the returns will be above the interest rate for some time to come. Interesting to note that Spain cancelled their Solar Feed in Tariff after investors nearly bankrupted the system using borrowed money to install solar panels in fields all over the country.

Feed in Tariffs will exclude anyone who wants to install renewables, but does not have the cash or borrowing power. In my opinion Feed in Tariffs should be cancelled and the money used to install free solar water heating for every pensioner household in the country.

Clarity on Performance

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Doug King

Following the piece I did for BBC Country File on Feed in Tariffs, I found myself in an interesting debate in the letters section of New Civil Engineer. As usual, this started me thinking, this time about communicating sustainability to the public.

The standing of climate science is currently pretty low as it has become apparent that scientists overstated some of the issues. The same happens when Government makes overblown statements about the effectiveness of renewable energy in desperate attempts to meet its own policy targets.

The announcement launching Feed in Tariffs suggested that householders could earn £900 per year from installing PV. They failed to mention that this was only true for the South East of England, on a perfectly pitched roof, facing due South; hardly representative of the average. Further, such an array would be a little too large to fit on the roof of an average 3 bed terraced house and would cost £13,000-£15,000.

I believe that there must be much more clarity on the actual performance of real systems. We have already seen the market for DIY wind turbines killed off by public reaction to the overstatement of returns by manufacturers. This has reduced the choices for homeowners, even where these could have been installed in worthwhile locations. For engineers and Government to similarly hype up the potential returns from renewable energy does not do the industry any favours.

We need to build public trust and support for renewable energy by making realistic assessments of the returns they can expect from real installations, not theoretical ones.