The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been criticised after many solar installers have been locked out of a feed-in tariff workshop organised to discuss the contentious proposals.
A FiT workshop is to be held at the BIS Conference Centre in Westminster next Monday, however installers have claimed they had received no invitation and when they attempted to register for the event this week, were told there was no longer space at the venue.
An invitation seen by Solar Power Portal does limit places to one person per organisation and does warn that many will not be able to attend due to “space constraints”. At the time of writing DECC had not confirmed the capacity of the venue, however the BIS Conference Centre website advertises meeting rooms “up to 250 delegates” in size.
Even if all those attending the event represented one company, it would still represent less than 10% of the industry given how the MCS accredited solar installer base numbers around 2,600 separate installation companies.
Joe Michaels, founder and commercial director of Joju Solar, told Solar Power Portal that his company was one of those to not receive an invitation which he labelled a “real shame”.
“We were the first MCS accredited company in London and Joju is a stakeholder with jobs on the line. In fact, they only gave two working days for any invitees to respond.
“When I sent a response five minutes after having been forwarded the invitation, I got a response saying it was already full and with an out of service phone number at the bottom of the email – which I think says it all.
“They clearly don’t want to hear the industry voice. It seems DECC believe that we are the green crap the government wants to get rid of,” Michaels said.
And the dismay at the Conservative Party’s renewables policy reset has led to the organisation of a protest to take place during next week’s Party conference in Manchester, put together by campaign group Friends of the Earth for next Wednesday (7 October).
“Up to 27,000 high quality local jobs in every part of the UK are at risk due to the proposed cuts to the Feed-in Tariff. The Solar Trade Association is encouraging anyone involved in the solar to head to Conservative party conference in Manchester next Wednesday and show George Osborne that these are real jobs and real people now under threat. We must encourage the Conservatives to adopt a more steady and structured approach to reductions in support for solar power,” Sonia Dunlop, spokeswoman at the Solar Trade Association, said.
Those interested in joining the event are being asked to meet outside Friends Meeting House, Mount St, M2 5NS for 12pm, and more details are available here.
The Department for Energy and Climate Change had not responded to requests for comment for this article at the time of publication.