I am grateful to my constituents for drawing my
attention to the government’s plans for solar energy and proposals to end
export tariff and feed-in tariff subsidies for small scale solar installations.
I fully understand their concerns. Achieving clean
growth, while ensuring an affordable energy supply for businesses and
consumers, is at the heart of the UK’s Industrial Strategy.
As set out in the Government’s Clean Growth
Strategy, that means nurturing low-carbon technologies, processes and systems
that protect our businesses and households from high energy costs, and secure
an industrial and economic advantage from the global transition to a low-carbon
economy.
Our country generates electricity from increasingly
low carbon sources and the electricity powering the UK's homes and businesses
in 2017 was the greenest ever, with 50% coming from clean sources - up from 19%
in 2010.
Alongside the Renewables Obligation and the
Contract for Difference regime, the Feed-In Tariffs (FIT) scheme has played a
significant part in this effort.
The FIT scheme was introduced to support the
widespread adoption of proven small-scale (up to 5MW) low-carbon electricity
generating technologies. The scheme was intended to give the wider public a
stake in the transition to a low-carbon economy and in turn foster behavioural
change that would support the development of local supply chains and reductions
in energy costs.
The FIT scheme is funded through levies on
suppliers, and ultimately consumers, regardless of whether or not they directly
participate in the scheme. That is why controlling costs was paramount in the
reviews of the scheme in 2012 and 2015, the latter of which provided consumers
and industry with clarity on levels of small-scale renewable electricity
support until March 2019 with a fixed budget of £100m.
Since the start of the FIT scheme the cost of
small-scale low-carbon electricity generation has reduced significantly.
As costs continue to fall and deployment without
direct subsidy becomes increasingly possible for parts of the sector, it is
right that government acts to ensure continued value for money for bill payers
over the longer term. That is why government took the decision in 2015 to close
the export tariff alongside the generation tariff from end of March 2019.
I know that the Government is keen to listen to
sector leaders and FIT scheme participants and indeed a consultation on closure
of the FITs scheme to new applications after 31 March 2019 ran from 19 July to
13 September this year. A call for evidence on the future for small-scale
low-carbon generation also ran from 19 July to 30 August.
Responses to the consultation and call for evidence
are now being analysed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy, who will be setting out their response in due course.
I will be seeking to engage with the views of other
colleagues when Parliament is presented with an opportunity to debate this
matter.
On the future of solar power in the UK more
broadly, in September 2017 the Government announced a £1 billion programme
which will help more than 800,000 low-income UK households access cheap solar
electricity in the following five years. The firm providing the panels,
Solarplicity, is working with more than 40 social landlords, including local
authorities across England and Wales, to roll out installations nationally.
Tenants will not pay anything towards the installation of the panels and their
energy bills will be reduced by an average of £240 per year.
