The year is 2010 and the UK government is looking for ways to boost the take up of renewables and reduce Britain’s reliance on fossil fuels. By the beginning of 2011 they had 2 schemes running to incentivise both the public and businesses to invest in renewable energy – the Feed In Tariff and the Renewable Obligation Certificate.
Community Energy London chair Syed Ahmed revealed that his group believed that London had the capacity to reach 1GW of community energy capacity by 2030. Yet the sector is currently lagging far behind this.
Community Energy England’s State of the Sector 2022 report makes clear the potential growth of the community energy sector, but also how far behind we are in achieving this.
More than 60% of the respondents believed that a feed-in tariff (61%), Contracts for Difference (CfD) for heat (61%), and capital grants (67%) would support the industry.
On Thursday 7 June, as Johnson’s government was in its undignified death throes, one of it’s major success was being unveiled to the world. The results of an auction for renewable energy production to power the UK into the 2020s mean that UK will have record renewables at record low prices. However, it is not all good news. The relative success of renewables makes the failures in other areas weigh heavier and, as Greens, we need to be consider that this is coming at a cost.
Experts cite Scottish example, with turbines along roads and rail lines, as a way to make better use of ‘cheap, clean’ energy source
However, with government incentives now reduced, there’s a belief it could be the last turbine in the UK to start spinning with a Feed-in Tariff (FiT) accreditation.
More than 800,000 solar rooftops had been installed under the U.K. feed-in tariff but when the government cut the rate paid for excess power injected into the grid by 65% in April 2015, the rate of panel installations plummeted 94%.
FIT producers will be entitled to temporary and gradually decreasing compensation until the end of 2025 in order to mitigate the increased financial burden they face due to the new rules of balancing responsibility. The compensation will reduce, but may not exceed, the amount of the monthly balancing surcharge payable by FIT producers.
The precise level of earnings will depend on the tariff set by government but they are likely to be pitched at a rate generous enough to drive a significant uptake in photovoltaic roof panels. A rate of 19 cents a kilowatt-hour (kWh) paid in a now closed ESB scheme could yield €400 a year, according to industry experts
The Solar Trade Association (STA) has welcomed the Labour Party’s announcement this week that it will support over a million new domestic PV installations across the UK, through a mixture of fair export tariff payments, grant funding and by driving large economies of scale.
2023 © Wind-Works by Paul Gipe