Julie Elliott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of contracts for difference auctioning on small and medium-sized enterprises in the (a) renewable energy sector and (b) solar power industry.

Michael Fallon

The Department launched a consultation on our approach to competitive allocation of Contracts for Difference (CfDs) in January 2014. This included proposals to move to auctioning of CfDs from the first allocation this autumn. We carefully considered the responses to the consultation from small and medium-sized enterprises in the renewable energy sector and the solar power industry before confirming our policy position in the Government Response published on 13 May 2014. We will continue to engage with SMEs as we implement our proposals for competitive allocation to understand any difficulties they might face in participating in an auction for CfDs.