Leonie Greene
The solar PV (photovoltaic) industry was braced for bad news but the announcement today was shocking. If today’s new Tariff rates go through nothing above 50kW is commercially viable, which means no particularly meaningful school, local authority, community, co-operative, commercial or farming sector schemes. The solar energy sector had grown in less than a year from 3,000 to 10,000 jobs with an REA survey predicting 17,000 jobs by the end of this year – precious green growth that should have been seized with both hands.
The government have fundamentally failed to understand how the industry works. Larger schemes are needed for purchasing power, to drive supply chains and cost reductions for the benefit of all. And this had demonstrably worked well bringing costs down around 20% in a single year. No economy has built a solar industry based on a very modest set of ambitions for the domestic sector. And no new manufacturers will be interested in locating in the UK with such a suppressed domestic market. And it must be said, 50kW isn’t even large.
