Feed in Tariff Written Statement by Chris Huhne
Following the judgement on the Feed in tariff for solar panel installations and renewable energy technologies, Chris Huhne has issued a written statement explaining the reasoning behind the requested drop in the rate in the FiTs.
The Government wishes to reduce the Feed in Tariff rate in order to increase the number of solar panel installations and related technologies within the Feed in Tariff budget as apposed to paying out more money to fewer installations.
Solar panel installations and renewable energy sources are a clean future technology which the Government is keen to encourage and wishes to do this through offering people the opportunity to get paid for solar panel installations.
Solar panel news for 26th January 2012 is provided by external sources including indpendent solar panel installers as found in our directory, listing solar PV companies across the UK.
- Statement on meeting on Coryton Refinery
Energy Minister Charles Hendry this afternoon chaired a meeting with a range of interested parties to discuss the future of the Coryton refinery. The meeting took place at the Department of Energy and Climate Change in Central London.
Following the meeting, the Minister said:
“We have had a positive meeting this afternoon where the administrator set out what has been done so far and the plan of action to secure the long term future of Coryton refinery. The administrator has worked hard to restore deliveries to customers so quickly and I am greatly encouraged by the overall collaborative approach being taken.
“Coryton has strong advantages as a refinery and is an important part of the UK’s refining infrastructure. All those at today’s meeting made clear that they were committed to doing all they can to ensure the future of the refinery.
“There was agreement that the best way to secure the sustainable future of the plant is to maintain current operations and to find a buyer as quickly as possible. I made clear that the government will do all it can to support this process.”
Thu 26th Jan 2012 4:45pm - Written ministerial statement by Chris Huhne on Feed-in Tarrifs
26 January 2012
As the House will be aware, the Government’s proposed changes to the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme are the subject of a judicial review. Specifically, the Government has been challenged regarding its proposal to apply new tariffs for solar photovoltaics (PV) from 1 April 2012 to all new installations with an eligibility date on or after an earlier “reference date”, which we proposed should be 12 December 2011.
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal handed down a negative judgment on the Government’s appeal against an earlier decision by the High Court. We respectfully disagree with the judgment and are seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. In the light of that, we cannot rule out the possibility that lower tariffs could be applied to installations which became eligible for FITs on or after the proposed reference date. It is important that consumers are aware of this.
The reason for appealing is that we want to maximise the number of installations that are possible within the available budget for FITs, rather than use available money to pay a higher tariff to half the number of installations. Solar PV can have strong and vibrant future in UK and we want a lasting FITs scheme to support that future and jobs in the industry.
We have already put before Parliament draft licence modifications that (subject to the Parliamentary process) would bring a 21p rate into effect from April for solar PV installations which become eligible for FITs on or after 3 March, to help reduce the pressure on the budget and provide as much certainty as we can for consumers and industry.
In the meantime, we want as far as possible to minimise the uncertainty for PV and other technologies eligible for support under FITs. We are therefore still intending to publish the phase 2 consultation by 9 February. This will include proposed tariffs for other FITs technologies and a set of reform proposals for the scheme. We are also intending to publish the Government’s response to the other aspects of the phase 1 consultation that are not affected by the Judicial Review (namely the proposals on energy efficiency and for multi-installation tariff rates).
Thu 26th Jan 2012 9:44am - Jonathon Porritt: We need growth, but not heedless growth
The Founder-Director of Forum for the Future urges politicians to start taking the low-carbon agenda seriously.
I normally kick off with the good news. This time, let me start with a bit of the bad. In fact, quite a lot of bad news. The official CO2 figures for 2010 tell us that overall emissions increased by 6%, at a time when half the world’s economies were flat-lining in terms of economic growth. China and India were of course responsible for much of that increase – no flat-lining there.
Did any world leader, on hearing this news, even twitch? Make a speech? Press a panic button? Not one.
Thu 26th Jan 2012 2:41pm
