Mayor of London Boris Johnson has criticised the government’s “sharp cliff edge” feed-in tariff proposals in his response to the government’s consultation.
Johnson – having already spoke of his concern regarding the proposals – submitted his response to the consultation process yesterday, the details of which have been published by the London Assembly today.
In his response the Tory MP has defied his own party’s recommendations and said the proposals could be “damaging to the industry and investor confidence” and said the plans are “negatively affecting project pipelines and business plans”.
Johnson also warned that the proposed cuts would damage London’s own solar industry, resulting in “significant job losses” and hamper deployment rates under the capital’s RE:NEW and RE:FIT retrofit programmes.
“At the time the consultation was published, RE:FIT has one solar project well advanced and a £2 million PV project in the pipeline. As a result of the proposed FIT changes, the project is now being reconsidered and depending upon payback period, may not include solar PV,” the response states.
The Mayor suggested a number of alternative approaches, most notably a “gradual tapering” of the FiT over a period of “two to three years” in order to create a transition for solar to grid parity, as well as the possible adoption of a US-styled net metering initiative built onto the UK’s existing rollout of smart meters.
Johnson also called for greater certainty surrounding building standards, aligning commercial sector energy regulators to incentive investment in renewables under the Treasury’s business energy efficiency tax reforms and incentives for storage technologies.