Plans announced to improve Feed in Tariffs

New energy secretary Ed Davey has pledged to make improvements to the Feed-in tariff (FITs) at an announcement made on February 9th at the DECC. His junior minister Greg Barker said: "Today we are announcing plans to improve the Feed-in Tariffs scheme. Instead of a scheme for the few the new improved scheme will deliver for the many. Our new plans will see almost two and a half times more installations than originally projected by 2015 which is good news for the sustainable growth of the industry.

The Solar PV phase 1 consultation considered the rate of Feed in Tariff along with energy efficiency requirements for properties applying for the FIT.

Under DECC'S proposed new reforms, support for Feed-in tariffs could be cut from July 1 to 13.6p/kWh, while tariffs for photovoltaic panels (PV) with more than 4kW capacity could be reduced to as little as 4.7p/kWh, this is dependent on the number of installations taking place by this time.

Leading figures in the Solar PV industry have reacted with outrage at the plans to "Kill" the Solar PV industry throughout the course of 2012 whilst other technologies such as Micro CHP which have much lower uptake have seen increases to Feed in Tariffs. The plans have been slammed as a "Joke" by chairman of the STA Howard Johns and give raise further questions about the government's plan to be the "greenest government ever". In terms of energy efficiency requirements it has now been proposed that this be move to include properties within "Band D" which should calm some of the industry down. The previous plan to only include Bands A-C was slammed as restricting the availability of Feed in Tariffs to less than 15% of homes which would have crippled the industry regardless of the actually Feed in Tariff rates.

A second consultation review on solar controls is set to close on April 3. 

The latest consultation report can be viewed here.