The Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has confirmed that the Levy Control Framework (LCF) will run beyond the previous deadline of 2020, offering at least some assurance in an otherwise grey day for the renewables industry.
While announcing proposals to both close Renewable Obligation support for sub-5MW solar farms in 2016 and introduce cost control measures on the feed-in tariff, DECC also noted that the government intended to set out totals for the LCF beyond 2020 which it said would provide “a basis for electricity investment into the next decade”.
Speaking to Solar Power Portal this morning a DECC spokesman said the announcement was confirmation that there “would be support for renewables after 2020”, but that no extra details or a timeline of when additional information would be forthcoming could be disclosed.
Energy and climate change secretary Amber Rudd yesterday told the ECC Select Committee that discussions between DECC and the Treasury with regards to the future of the LCF were ongoing and that she would be pressing the department on what could be said on the matter and when.
With the LCF having recorded a substantial overspend there had been some doubt over whether its lifetime was to be extended beyond 2020 however in its first progress report to the Conservative party, the Committee on Climate Change insisted that the mechanism should be extended until 2025 – and rolling updates thereafter – in order to provide the energy sector with 10-year investment lead times.
