Blogs

Last week the Solar Power UK conference was held in Birmingham and the keynote speaker was Greg Barker, Minister for Energy and Climate Change. It was rumoured that he would make a ‘big’ announcement but, in the end, this did not happen. The announcement was leaked in the following days and was finally released by DECC on Monday  October 31. The result: a large cut in feed-in tariff rates from the end of this year.

At the opening of SMA’s UK HQ, Marko Werner Chief Sales and Marketing Officer & Board Member of PV inverter market leader SMA Solar Technology AG and Henry Dziuba, the Managing Director of SMA Solar UK Limited, spoke about the ramifications of the impending FiT cuts.

On October 14 I made a prediction on what I thought about the nature of the pending FiT cuts. As it turns out, that prediction was correct, and I would now like to help members of the industry…

With the deadline of December the 12th all too close, the question I am being asked is what do we need to get done by the deadline?

It was perhaps a foregone conclusion that the money-spinning solar industry, growing at break-neck speed on the back of generous Government subsidy had to be tamed down to sustainable levels, sooner or later.

If there is one thing you can be sure of in this world, it is that the law of unintended consequences follows Government plans like autumn follows summer. The fact is, if Government launches an initiative then there will be a multitude of clever people trying to find ways to use that initiative to their own advantage. Often initiatives are not used in the way they were intended — and many do not end up benefitting those to whom they were originally aimed.

After sitting at my desk for the best part of half an hour refreshing my screen, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) finally published what we have all been waiting for: the consultation on the comprehensive review of feed-in tariffs. Shortly after 10.30am the new rates were announced, and the UK solar…

DECC have just announced the proposed new Solar PV FIT rates…

As the UK solar industry crosses off another day in the lead-up to the Comprehensive Review, many are beginning to worry that we are in for another fast-track review. The question is, how damaging would this really be? In a bid to find out what the future might hold, I’ve taken a look at the large-scale solar story post-drastic feed-in tariff (FiT) reductions.

Thanks to the scaremongering tactics of the UK press, trade or otherwise, my phone has been ringing off the hook all morning. With wild claims that the feed-in tariff rates for microgeneration-level solar energy will be slashed to just 9p, today’s media has all but knocked the stuffing out of an already nervous UK solar industry.