Part 1: What next for solar under the UK coalition government? | Act On Solar Power Portal

Exclusive interview with David Wagstaff, Head of Distributed Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

Amplify’d from www.solarpowerportal.co.uk

Part 1: What next for solar under the UK coalition government?

Exclusive interview with David Wagstaff, Head of Distributed Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)

With the HM Treasury review done and dusted, the feed-in tariff (FiT) for micro-generation that includes solar energy has emerged unscathed. This is good news and a clear indication that both Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians recognise that supporting renewable energy should remain a key strategy to meet carbon reduction goals set for 2020 through 2050. What isn’t so clear is what happens next for solar energy in the UK as the Government prepares to make revisions to the FiT in March 2012. A clear message to all UK households has been delivered by David Wagstaff, Head of Distributed Energy at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), which set out the renewable policy in this country. During the inaugural Solar Power UK Conference, held in London on October 18th & 19th, Wagstaff reiterated in an exclusive video interview (see column right) with the Solar Power Portal that the Coalition Government is fully committed to small-scale microgeneration schemes. “This is a particularly good time, of course, because the new Coalition Government has emphasised and re-emphasised [at the conference] its commitment to small-scale renewable energy,” noted Wagstaff in the video interview. “We also know we are going to have a new microgeneration strategy. We are consulting on that at the moment, so a conference like this is an opportunity for two days worth of discussion about all of the matters that really make a difference to the industry and of course Government needs to be involved in those sorts of conversations.” Recent rumours in the mainstream press raising doubts over whether the Government would alter the feed-in tariff system as part of the HM Treasury review led to calls being made to the DECC seeking reassurance before investments went ahead as planned. This proved a tense time and was certainly a key topic of discussion at the conference. Only a few days after the interview with Wagstaff, it was announced that the current FiT would remain unchanged for the period originally set out by the previous Labour Government. The tariff will then stay at the current level until it is reviewed in March 2012 with any changes taking place in 2013. With the FiT only established on April 1st 2010, stability, it would seem, has now been restored. Photovoltaic installation activity is certainly being spurred along by the FiT. Wagstaff noted that approximately 92% of microgeneration installations since April 1st had been PV, taking the installed figure past 11,500 in just six months. Asked whether the take-up in PV so far had met or exceeded expectations, Wagstaff was reluctant to be drawn on the issue, noting only that the Government “was very pleased to see this” rate of adoption. However, during Wagstaff’s own presentation at the conference, a slide noted that departmental installation estimates prior to the introduction of the FiT were approximately 750,000 by 2020, or approximately 75,000 per annum – a figure that is accepted as being both realistic and, most importantly, welcomed. Government thinking small-scale PV A key political aim of the Conservative Party ideology, introduced by party leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron, is to encourage citizens to do more for themselves and more in the local community, changing a mindset that central government should be responsible for everything. A decentralised government approach would seem to mirror the very nature of what the FiT delivers, namely, a decentralised power generation capability. In the video interview, Wagstaff highlighted that: “There is little doubt that solar panels are in many people’s minds, what they mean by ‘going green’. So if you say to people, what are you doing? What can we do in this community? What can we do to our own houses? One message is around the ‘Green Deal’ [Conservative Party manifesto plan] and around energy efficiency – and we hope that message is getting through – because it’s a very effective way of taking green action. But the other way and the way that really energizes people that want to engage in this subject is to somehow make their own energy – whether their generating electricity or whether they are producing their own heat, the idea of doing it yourself is a really powerful message and I think it is something that is really worth emphasizing from the government perspective.” Interestingly, Wagstaff also noted that the support for the adoption of solar by households wasn’t solely about meeting renewable energy targets with solar. There were other key reasons for the Coalition Government’s support. “It’s about something much wider than that,” noted Wagstaff. “It is about enabling communities and people to do things that matter to them – things that they want to do – giving the choice to the consumer rather than being directed from Whitehall. So it is part of the big movement towards more localist, bigger society and it’s about people taking responsibility for their own energy action… solar PV is a very visible, very popular means of doing that. So I would predict big growth in the future.” With solar technology accounting for over 90% of microgeneration installations, future FiT support for the residential market isn’t just about meeting targets: it’s about how solar mirrors the parties’ ideologies. As long as that ideology remains unchanged, the government looks set to continue to support solar and other micro-generation technologies in the next revision. Reductions in the FiT rates should be seen as a given, such as the developments seen in Germany, which were introduced to keep abreast of the solar industry’s manufacturing cost reduction curves.   The FiT review now underway will also look at other technologies that could empower citizens to take action, while setting out the next FiT regression. The essential aspect of the new micro-generation strategy is that key aspects of the ‘Green Deal’ election manifesto will become clearer. Furthermore, these aspects will, should the current coalition continue, be carried into the next UK general election in five years’ time. In the second part of this analysis of the Government’s feed-in tariff policy, we will look at the large-scale (1-5MW) market and the view currently held by the Government and its impact on the PV utility market. Read more at www.solarpowerportal.co.uk

 

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