Update: Farmers need to reconsider urgently the terms and timetable of their proposed solar installations. NFU members are reminded that they can contact CallFirst, on 0870 845 8458, for advice. We've put together a full briefing including details of our lobbying on this issue here.
DECC minister Greg Barker has begun a consultation process on plans to halve the feed-in tariffs available for smaller solar installations.
The proposals would reduce the government support for projects between 10 and 50 kilowatts from 32.9p per kilowatt-hour to 15.2p. Those between 4kW and 10kW would fall from 37.8p per kilowatt-hour to 16.8p, while arrays of up to 4kW would see support slashed from 43.3p to 21p.
And they come with a tight timescale – the lower tariffs would apply to all new solar PV installations with ‘an eligibility date on or after 12 December 2011’.
The NFU believes the result will be a rush to complete and commission installations over the next six weeks.
For those that miss out, the figures may simply no longer stack up.
Speaking this morning on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, the chairman of our combinable crops board, Ian Backhouse, said that the proposed cuts had made his own solar plans “unviable” unless he could beat the deadline.
He said: “The changes will make an installation on our barn roof impossible, because we’ll need planning permission for that and it’s highly unlikely we’ll get it in time.
“The reality is that if they cut feed-in tariffs by the proposed amount many of the schemes become unviable. The minister himself has spoken about returns on capital falling from ten per cent to four per cent.
“The numbers don’t look sensible anymore. Once again government policy is steering renewables into the hands of big business.”
Listen to the piece here (from 7m 50s).
Tariffs for larger PV projects over 50kw hours were cut back in the summer.
The DECC says the popularity of solar has outstripped expectations. With the cost of installation falling by 30%, it says that tariffs cuts have become necessary to ensure consistent rates of return.
An eight-week consultation period ends on December 23.
- Visit our renewables news page here.
- J Wes - 23/11/2011
How short sighted can the government be, how could they not see there would be a good takeup of such an incredible offer? The better way would have been to start at a lower FIT offer and then raise it if demand were not sufficient to meet the eec targets, not slam almost everyone's efforts into the wall with retrospective cutbacks. Criminal policy making.
- D Ralph Metson - 12/11/2011
I feel really sore about this. I had spent tens of hours researching a project with a company that was going to fit for free but take the FIT - we would have the free electricity. They have now pulled out as insufficient time to get planning and connection to grid. They say they have lost a million. We have committed to re-roofing barn in question prematurely so it would last 25 years and also run up a solicitors bill for £1,400. Many will have lost more.
- stuart fairhead - 04/11/2011
we have just applied for planning permission to put a 20Kwh solar system on our workshop roof , with the feed in tarrifs due to change at he end of march 2012 we decided to get the permission first , i now feel cheated by the news yesterday regarding the cut in payments , we put off the offerd instalation date of the 7th of november to apply for the planning , now i wish we had done the installation and then applied for retrospective planning it could of been worth the trouble ! we can only hope that a reduction in the cost of pannels which no doubt had an inflated price might help to make the installation viable . We are a hatchery based company so the electric we would of produced through the summer would of fitted in well with our operation ,we are now waiting for our chosen installer to be able to run the SAP calculation again to see how it all stacks up