The Cut Don’t Kill campaign – a coalition of UK solar power companies and NGOs including Friends of the Earth – has responded to new Government proposals for a 52% cut in the Feed-in Tariff by warning that such deep cuts would “kill the UK solar industry stone dead”, destroying 4,000 companies and 25,000 jobs. The Feed-in Tariff pays anyone who has installed a solar power system for generating electricity – the Government’s consultation, published today, would see the basic rate of Feed-in Tariff fall from 43.3p per kilowatt hour to 21p per kilowatt hour.
Howard Johns, of the Cut Don’t Kill campaign, said:
“Such deep cuts to the tariff would kill the UK solar industry stone dead. We are happy to accept some cuts, but the Government must recognise that wiping out 4,000 companies and 25,000 jobs by cutting too deeply would be an appalling waste of economic potential. Our message to the Government is cut us, but don’t kill us – we want a sustainable cut that would allow us to survive and deliver the green growth that David Cameron said he was committed to.”
“The Government has a choice – either they can cut like this and make an entire industry go bust, or they can work with us to properly plan the phasing out of the tariff bit by bit, which will produce a flourishing industry that won’t need any subsidy or support.”
The Cut Don’t Kill campaign is organising a day of action in Westminster, scheduled for 23rd November, when the industry will rally to persuade MPs and Ministers to reduce the planned cuts to the Feed-in Tariff.
2 Comments
We recently ordered a solar PV system to be installed before the review of FIT scheduled for the end of March. The government decision to bring the review date forward and to slash the FIT means that we cannot afford to go ahead. There must be hundreds of people in this situation and it will have a devastating effect on the small scale solar industries. No one objects to properly programmed and phased reductions as the solar industry becomes more experienced and efficient, but this will be shockingly destructive at exactly the time when this technology is establishing itself with considerable success.
Is this a case for the Office of Fair Trading?
David Lea (Architect for the Wales Institute for Sustainable Education at CAT)
We’re amongst the fortunate ones – we had out PV array installed in September.
We are now self-sufficient in electricity taken on a yearly basis, even though of course we still pay for electricity when the panels aren’t producing.
But this move is surely the wrong direction. Don’t ewe want more self-sufficiency, not less? Don’t we want less carbon dioxide to be emitted, not more? Don’t we want greater diversity in energy production, rather than greater centralisation?
And shouldn’t people’s word mean something, even if it is the Government?