The measures announced today include:Removing the guaranteed level of subsidy for biomass conversions and co-firing projects for the duration of the Renewable Obligation, known as grandfathering.
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The Government has announced proposals to close the subsidies scheme a year early in April 2016 for “small-scale” solar farms, which can be up to 25 acres in size, to save up to £100 million a year by 2020.
These factors will increase the affordability of solar power for distribution companies and eliminate the requirement of government support by way of subsidies or viability gap funding (VGF).
As part of extensive reforms of Britain’s electricity market, the government has been changing the way it supports renewable energy by replacing direct subsidies with a contracts-for-difference (CfD) system.
She added: “We can’t have a situation where industry has a blank cheque, and that cheque is paid for by people’s bills”.
Tamasin Cave, of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, said: ‘By breaking the rules, Amber Rudd gives the impression she’d rather we didn’t know about her brother’s lobbying business.’.
Households could end up footing the overrun which would add £20 to household energy bills.
Mr Selwyn called for “a level playing field” for solar in relation to nuclear energy and fracking, in terms of subsidies and planning regulations.
According to worldwide Renewable Energy Agency, solar photovoltaic prices have fallen almost 80 per cent since 2008.
The government says the move is necessary to protect consumers.
It is expected that other types of green energy, which attract high subsidies such as offshore wind, will see cuts in the near future.
It plans to reduce support for projects in development and to stop guaranteeing a certain level of subsidy for the lifetime of a solar farm once built. A source in the Department of Energy and Climate Change said further cuts in subsidies were likely in the coming months to achieve this.
Niall Stuart, chief executive of industry body Scottish Renewables, said: “This change will just erode further investor confidence in the energy sector”.
“The announcement of planned solar cuts reveals a government showing clear disregard for meaningful public participation”, said Friends of the Earth political campaigner Oliver Hayes.
The secretary however referenced storage throughout the proceedings and heralded it as a “really excitement” development for the energy industry, particularly when combined with solar generation, and said the “huge expectations” of the technology represented a “fantastic opportunity” for it in the UK.
The Solar Trade Association (STA) claimed the move would hit large rooftop schemes, which the Government has been keen to back, as well as solar farms.
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STA head of external affairs Leonie Greene said: “There is no pledge in the Conservative manifesto about cutting support for solar, so we are disappointed by this move”. The country was among the first in the European Union to set up sun-catching panels across many farms and rooftops in the last two years as investors and homeowners rushed to take advantage of the combination of subsidies and falling equipment costs.
