policy

Yesterday the government and Ofgem published its strategy for a modernised, smart and flexible power system, the result of its eagerly anticipated response to last year’s Smart Power Call for Evidence. Solar Power Portal picks through the document to assess how the domestic solar and storage industries may benefit.

Business secretary Greg Clark has unveiled the first phase of a £246 million investment in battery technology with the launch of the Faraday Challenge, designed to boost research and development and position the UK at the forefront of energy storage.

Regulations implemented earlier this year retroactively cutting tariffs under the Northern Ireland Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) could create a legal precedent to reduce agreed support in schemes across the wider renewables sector.

The European Commission has proposed an alternative floor price setting mechanism to replace the minimum import price’s (MIP) current linkage to Bloomberg prices.

Hive Energy has revealed it is planning to build a solar farm in the UK without subsidy support next summer.

The European renewables lobby has leapt to the defence of the sector, warning that a withdrawal of priority dispatch for renewables would be counterproductive.

Labour MP Rachel Reeves, widely tipped as one of the party’s rising stars, has been selected as chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Select Committee.

The UK’s solar capacity could soar to as much as 44GW by 2050 if consumers take command of their own power supply, National Grid has forecasted.

There is now more than 200MW of capacity within the residential solar feed-in tariff (FiT) cap as the regime enters the second half of its operation.

New energy minister Richard Harrington has once again raised the prospect of the inclusion of solar in future Contract for Difference (CfD) allocations, claiming no decisions have been made to exclude the technology from upcoming auctions.