Reacting to the early review of the UK’s feed-in tariff, the European Photovoltaics Industry Association (EPIA) has come forward and asked the Government to “take all the necessary caution to let the market deploy [solar] and avoid destabilizing many British communities and companies which are starting to invest.”
EPIA representatives have called on the UK Government to tread very carefully over the next months when reconsidering the current feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme. The association stressed the importance of developing a sustainable market in the long term by providing a stable and reliable framework.
Many companies have already invested in the solar energy market, generating an entire new industry sector in the UK. However, the announcement of an early review of the FiT “generates an unusually long period of uncertainty, putting many projects at stake while placing a break on this nascent market before it has properly started,” explained EPIA.
“In times of economic crisis, it is essential to encourage the development of a promising sector such as photovoltaic’s which can create thousands of local jobs” said Eleni Despotou, Secretary General of EPIA. “The UK should raise its ambition and widely deploy PV, a decentralized well proven renewable electricity generation technology. According to estimates by EPIA, UK has been identified as having the fifth largest technical potential for PV in Europe. The UK also has significant existing manufacturing as well as new opportunities.”
EPIA says that it is willing to provide any advice to the UK Government – given its experience of FiT reviews – in order to secure as much stability as possible to the emerging UK industry.
