Meeting the costs of the feed-in tariff (FiT) regime has meant solar ‘hasn’t necessarily got a good name’ within government across the board, according to the lead of a new network set up to safeguard the academic future of the technology.
The Irish government has approved the country’s long-awaited Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS), with the first auction set to take place in 2019 after state aid approval has been secured from the European Union.
Solar developers could be offered ‘time-profiled’ grid access during daylight hours to suit the generation profiles of their sites under a planned shake-up of the distribution network access and charging arrangements.
Leonie Greene, director of advocacy and new markets at the Solar Trade Association, analyses what the government’s future of small-scale renewables holds in store and what steps must be taken next.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) expects sub-5MW solar deployment to fall to between 50MW and 100MW each year as a result of its closure of the feed-in tariff scheme, its impact assessment reveals.
The green economy has widely condemned the government’s post-subsidy renewables vision, deriding it for a lack of clarity and the potential for it to have “worrying” and “truly bizarre” consequences.
The government has confirmed it will close the small-scale feed-in tariff (FiT) on 31 March 2019 as planned and, crucially, close the export tariff to new installations at the same time.
The government is keen to avoid a “bonanza” of people “gaming the system” as it continues to mull a replacement for the small-scale feed-in tariff scheme.
