Support for rooftop solar energy in the UK , with subsidies for domestic projects slashed by nearly two-thirds – a little less than the 87 per cent threatened in the summer, but still disastrous. Can solar initiatives survive?
Rewind to early November. At a gathering for the opening of a community-energy conference in Ware, a Hertfordshire town about 30 kilometres north of London, there was every reason to feel like we had all run out of juice.
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In August, chancellor George Osborne had effectively pulled the plug on community-owned generation of renewable electricity by revealing that he would slash the feed-in tariff (FIT) subsidy for solar photovoltaics, the sum paid for surplus energy exported to the grid.
This was a bitter blow and still is, despite the slight softening of the cuts unveiled yesterday. Solar PV is the cornerstone technology for many such projects. Our own energy cooperative, (HEN), had already installed panels on one school and we had hoped to repeat the process on 12 more.
Like many community-energy groups, we were relying on the FIT to repay investors in the community who had helped raise funds to buy the panels. Then in October, Osborne also cut the tax incentives that had helped encourage those investors.
Together, these two actions seemed to strangle the hopes of many communities aiming to make their own electricity. One early casualty occurred in in Sussex, where a community-energy group set up to counter a fracking threat had to pull out of its flagship solar farm. For HEN, the changes threatened almost two years of work by unpaid volunteers. The community-energy conference was looking more like a wake.
Rays of light
But there were glimmers of light. Ray Noble from the reminded us that solar power has become an unstoppable force. It now provides , and a growing share of the world’s energy.
The cost of solar-generated electricity is already in some parts of the world. The UK government may not care about its environmental benefits, but it cannot afford to ignore the potential financial advantages.
We also exchanged ideas to help dodge Osborne’s wrecking ball. In Hertford, for instance, one informal neighbourhood co-op has negotiated a bulk discount with a local PV installer, helping to make solar energy more affordable. UK start-up Open Utility is pioneering the idea that groups such as HEN can sell clean electricity locally at a small premium, and has created an online marketplace called to help achieve this.
For small energy co-ops working on a shoestring, tiny discounts or additional income make all the difference. Then there are UK cities such as and Bristol, where authorities are actively embracing community-owned electricity generators. They have realised that the long-term benefits – in social, environmental and financial terms – are worth the investment.
In the end, the conference was no wake – more a celebration of new thinking and ingenious workarounds in the face of a government backing away from supporting renewables.
Like many others, our dozen Hertfordshire schools may have to wait a bit for solar panels, which is not ideal given the pressing need to decarbonise the economy. But their day in the sun is surely coming.
Image credit: REX/Shutterstock
