An alliance of construction companies, solar energy groups and politicians will tomorrow appeal to the government to increase support for renewable energy for households through its proposed Clean Energy Cashback scheme.
As the government's consultation period on the plan draws to a close, supporters of solar panels are urging the government to increase the amount that home owners would be paid for every unit of green electricity they produce. Just adding 10p per kilowatt hour to the proposed 36p rate would create 30,000 jobs in the next five years, the industry says, by driving demand for 400,000 new installations by 2014.
The scheme, usually called a feed-in tariff, has been successfully used to boost the roll-out of renewable energy technologies across Europe. In July, the government pledged to introduce a similar scheme in April next year.
But its aim of producing returns on investment of 5-8%, depending on the technology, is too low. Germany, for example, typically offers around a 10% return which has seen renewables take off rapidly.
The shadow energy minister, Charles Hendry, said: “Feed-in tariffs are crucial if the kickstart in microgeneration is to happen, but it will undermine the point of introducing the Clean Energy Cashback if the rate is not sufficient to drive domestic and commercial uptake of the technologies.”
Brian Berry, of the Federation of Master Builders, said: “The FMB would welcome any change to the proposed Clean Energy Cashback scheme that maximises solar jobs for our membersat a time when many of them are really suffering as a result of the recession.”
