Liverpool Green Party were asked by a local solar installer to publish an article about the latest cuts to solar energy incentives. The following article is the words of NES Roofing and Energy, not Liverpool Green Party, and other solar installers are available. We have published this because we oppose this latest government attack on the renewable energy industry. Please get involved with the campaign to urge a rethink.
Will The Lights Go Out On Solar?
This summer’s sunny weather has led to new records in solar energy production. The energy produced by solar in the UK in May alone was enough to power 600,000 homes for a full year on clean, renewable energy. Unfortunately, while the future was starting to look bright for renewables, the government have announced that they will be closing all incentives for solar energy.
One of the main reasons over 800,000 homeowners have chosen to install solar has been the financial incentive provided through the Feed in Tariff (FiT) scheme. The FiT has two benefits, owners are paid for every unit of energy their solar system produces, and also receive a payment for any surplus energy which is then exported into the National Grid.
Papers released by the government on 19th July, however, outlined proposals to close the scheme for systems installed after March 2019. No replacement incentives were announced, and the justification was that maintaining the scheme would cost homeowners £1/ year.
Closure of the export tariff will mean that excess energy (assumed around 50% of a household’s solar energy generation) will be going back to the National Grid for free, meaning that private energy companies will be the only ones benefitting from these incentive cuts.
Tony Edwards, founder of local solar PV installer, NES Roofing and Energy, commented that “instead of following their preferred strategy of encouraging Nuclear and Fracking, the government need to sit up and look at the success of clean renewable energy.”
This underlines a complete lack of support from the government towards renewable energy, despite commitments to reducing national carbon footprints.
If you would like to stop these cuts for the solar industry please sign and share the following Greenpeace petition:
https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/stop-the-solar-attack-em-share
There is still time to benefit from the feed-in tariff. As long as new solar energy systems are installed before the deadline, the homeowner will be eligible for the FiT payments for 20 years.
