HOMES with solar panels will soon be expected to give away unused power to energy firms for free, the UK Government has announced.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced it would be ending the feed-in tariff scheme, through which domestic properties and small energy producers can earn up to £140 per year, in March 2019.
The scheme, which was introduced in 2010, has already seen rates for each unit of energy produced slashed from 44p to 4p.
Responding, Hannah Smith, pictured, senior policy manager at Scottish Renewables, said: “The UK Government’s disappointing decision to close the feed-in tariff scheme jeopardises our ambitions for small-scale renewables, community-owned energy and the smarter, cleaner energy system which we need to fight climate change.
“Meeting the ambitions set out by Government in the smart systems and flexibility plan requires a robust and varied mix of renewable energy technologies. It is critical that a credible pathway setting out viable market-based solutions is in place before support for this scale of generation is removed. Without that pathway, industry will face significant challenges in the shift to the ‘smarter, cleaner future’ which Ofgem today predicted could cut household bills by £45 a year.
She added this is additionally concerning for Scottish solar panel users who “are already facing significant cost increases because of a number of ongoing Ofgem reforms, as well as for the Scottish Government’s ambition that 2GW of community or locally-owned energy be installed by 2030.”
She continued: “We have already begun discussions with the Scottish Government to identify areas we can work on together to support the small-scale renewables sector.”
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