Stop July Solar PV FIT Cuts. Rebalance the UK Solar Panel Market.

Give solar water heating much more support: so it gets the same payback time as PV.

190 UK solar PV companies responded to a nationwide survey about the state of the solar sector in the UK. The results are alarming:

• They had reduced staff numbers by 25% as compared to last summer
• 43% of companies were intending to reduce staff numbers in the coming months
• 72% have suffered financial losses due to the tariff cuts
• 50% of solar PV companies are finding EPC D to be a huge barrier with only 2% saying it was an opportunity
• 94% of solar PV companies are finding it very slow
• 67% say that they cannot make the new proposed July PV FIT tariffs work
• 92% were worried or very worried about their solar business

Data supplied by (and with thanks to) the Cut Don’t Kill team!

Solartwin’s response.

• Every cloud has a silver lining.
• The good news for potential solar customers is that prices have never been better: some solar PV installations can still manage a 10 year payback. With solar PV FIT payments still lasting for 25 years, this beats just about any bank!
• At Solar Twin Ltd, we are very fortunate in having a great team and a great solar heating alternative to solar PV available: sales of our great neat zero carbon operation solar water heaters are now rising!

Solar PV FIT background context:

• Solar industry seeks a freeze cuts to feed in tariffs before the sun sets on the solar industry for good.
• Solar electricity should be a great British success story.
• Since April 2010, over 300,000 households have installed solar panels.
• By  the end of 2011, the industry constituted 4,000 companies and employed 35,000 people.
• In 2010/11, solar accounted for 20% of all UK renewable energy exports.
• But its future has been jeopardised by the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s mishandling of feed in tariffs (FITs).

Solar PV FIT history in the last half year:

• In the last 6 months, the solar PV industry has had to endure a series of unsettling knee-jerk changes to solar PV FIT subsidies.
• Overnight on 3rd March, the domestic PV FIT tariff was slashed by more than half from 43p per kilowatt to 21p per kilowatt.
• Not only was the PV FIT cut itself significant, the process through which it was handled was disappointing.
• DECC track-record since October includes 1 illegal FIT cut, 2 appeals to the courts, 3 consultations, 2 feed-in tariff scheme changes following shortened consultations.
• All of this has undermined public confidence in the future of Solar electricity.
• Solar PV Panel installation rates were roughly half in April this year to that of a year ago.
• Indeed, Solar PV installations have nose-dived to such an extent that it would now take another 160 years to deliver the amount of Solar energy that the Government claims it wants to generate by 2020.
• DECC is currently consulting on a further round of cuts to Solar PV FITs, effective from July.
• If this new solar FIT reduction is implemented, the feed in tariff will reduce by as much as 69% in the space of three months.

Solar needs rights now

• We urge Government in the strongest possible terms to intervene and freeze any further cuts.
• After six months of policy uncertainty and constantly moving goalposts, the last thing that this industry needs now is yet another slashing of FITs.
• We need stability again, plus a level playing field for solar thermal.

Solar ambition

• Last week the UK PM made a promise at the Clean Energy Ministerial summit that the Government would deliver on its renewable energy commitments.
• The Government has a very clear ambition of generating 22 GWp of solar by 2020. But put simply, there is no chance of meeting this goal if further cuts are seen.
• Only 1 GWp of Solar PV generating capacity is installed in UK right now.
• We understand that times are tough and that budgets have to be reined in. But Solar businesses and associated trades in the wider construction industry have already felt more than their fair share of pain in recent months.
• Solar energy has enormous potential to meet this country’s future energy needs. We ask government to work with us to ensure that policy in this area is sensible and sustainable and that solar thermal immediately gets the same return on investment as solar PV!

Now for the unashamed solar sales pitch. Call us for your solar quotes now!