Fields are for food, not solar panels

March 18, 2011  by outsidewrecker Comments ( 2 )

The Government’s decision to review the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme is one of those classic cases of being damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

Having waited years for incentive schemes to help kickstart the renewables market while casting envious glances towards Germany, Portugal, and Spain; less than a year into our FiT programme it is all up in the air again. This breaks the Golden Rule of not moving the goalposts once you have put an incentive in place. However, there are mitigating circumstances here.

The FIT scheme was not intended to be an alternative to the equities markets, but to stimulate the generation of household renewable power. Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne is, rightly, concerned that the subsidies are, instead, making their way into the pockets of so-called “shrewd investors”. He has fast-tracked a review of the scheme and it looks as if arrays over 50kW will be made less attractive to investors after April next year.

This move is arbitrary, but is probably right if it stops people building solar farms in fields. We have so much roof space available we should be using that first.

Poverty
Food prices are on the rise and we are not able to feed the seven billion people in the world; let alone considering the additional two billion who will be around in 2050 (the equivalent of two Indias). The G20 countries are becoming increasingly concerned about food security – global poverty rather puts renewable energy arguments in the shade. So let’s keep the fields for growing food and fill up otherwise useless roof space with PV.

However, the Government now has to be very careful that it does not put the renewable energy market into reverse. More than 22,000 installations have registered for FiTs since their launch last April – hugely increasing our installed renewable energy capacity. The majority of the registered installations are individual homes and 95 per cent of them are using photovoltaic (PV) panels.

It is a tricky one for the Government, but whatever decision is taken it must communicate clearly where the strategy is going. The fact there is a review at all is increasing uncertainty about the whole FiT scheme. This has already driven some investors away and put the brakes on the smaller individual systems too. What the industry needs is a quick decision to remove the uncertainty.

The HVCA will be keeping a close eye on this and will continue to chase down answers from government and transmit them to members.

David Frise is head of sustainability at the HVCA whose members are committed to delivering high quality, responsible and sustainable building services solutions. dfrise@hvca.org.uk

Read more at www.hvca.org.uk

 

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowmybackyard/2394376192

 

Tagged as: feed in tariff, FiT, food production, hvca, solar, uk government policy

  • Lperdue

    ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Well, let’s just “drill, baby, drill!” Let’s have some more “clean coal” and some more “clean nuclear” energy – just like Japan.
    Sorry, but we can have BOTH Solar energy and plants – it may not be like your parents told you, but we CAN!
    From the day we are born into this world, we are being taught what our parents have been taught, and what their parents have taught them, without asking much questions as to who we are, why we are here and why things are the way they are. Existential questions are simply perceived as abstract and irrelevant in a left-brained society focusing on money and career performance, and for those who seek a reason, countless financed religious institutions claim to provide the ultimate answers and ensure a securing spiritual identity.

    Generations pass by, trends change, technologies are emerging and an affluent communication has opened the doors for new evolutionary ideas and insights that are pushing the envelope on society’s boundaries. Yet evolutionary ideas seem to remain in the “fantasy” section of an industrialist system, for in the good old ways of a governing establishment we ought to trust.

    “Authority knows best” is the slogan of our conventional wisdom, and we meanwhile can mind our own business, go on with our lives, get our needs met and live happily ever after as long as we conform to the norms of industrialism.

    From cradle to grave, we are following the guidelines of what authority defines as a state-of-the-art system, in which “success” seems to begin and end within the running wheel of education, career performance, debt management and retirement. A vibrant economy is the ultimate priority of our global hierarchy, while a vibrant planet, the respect of all lifeforms, healthy foods, peaceful ways and conscious actions seem to be a mere subject of conversation, often turned into a few fundraising campaigns with very little or no impact at all, for they go against the very foundation of industrialist principles anyways. Way of the world it seems.

    We shall nonetheless pass on these capitalist and patriotic values for our children to perpetuate the very same cycle we have been in for as long as we can remember, because after all, it is all we’ve ever known.

    End of story?

    If you believe it, then it is.

  • http://twitter.com/outsidewrecker4 David Frise

    Thanks for the comment. I don’t think I am advocating an oil or coal or nuclear agenda. I am trying to say in the UK we have little land and lots of areas with buildings on them. Use the the roof of an existing building before you use a field. Same argument really that is used if you were wanting to build more housing, “is there a brownfield site available?” rather than dig up a green field.
    The argument is now pretty redundant as the UK government slashed the FiT by @70% last week taking away the main driver for these solar farms.

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