The new feed-in tariff (FiT) rates for solar photovoltaic technology have become effective as of today.
The rates were confirmed by Ofgem earlier in the year and represent the first round of FiT cuts enacted under the newly introduced tri-monthly degression model.
The new rates show that the residential FiT was cut by just over half a pence to 15.44p/kWh from 16p/kWh while the commercial FiT was cut by less than half a penny to 13.1p/kWh from 13.5p/kWh. For larger businesses, the rate of 11.5p/kWh remains unchanged.
However, with recent electricity price hikes, these cuts will make the return on investment from solar projects higher than it was a month ago. Dr. Chris Jardine, Technical Director at PV installer Joju Solar said: “We’ve seen a 3.5% cut in feed-in-tariffs on residential and small commercial buildings. But at the same time, we’ve seeing electricity prices rise by as much as 10 per cent in October which more than outweighs the cut in feed-in-tariffs and makes the return on investment from solar projects higher than it was this time last month.”
Latest figures released by the Department of Energy and Climate Change reveal that the UK installed 747.586MW of solar under the FiT scheme in the first nine months of 2012.
The full feed-in tariff rate table for solar PV can be viewed here.