Michael Dugher – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what steps her Department is taking to (a) promote the installation of domestic solar photovoltaic systems and (b) provide funding streams for such installations.
Andrea Leadsom
In 2014, renewables provided nearly one fifth of the UK’s electricity needs[1] and we are on track to reach our aim of delivering 30 per cent by 2020. Generation from solar PV is making a significant contribution to achieving this aim, partly due to the support the technology receives through the small-scale Feed-in Tariff (FITs) scheme, and partly through the support to larger, mostly ground mounted solar PV, through the Renewables Obligation (RO); as of the end of October, we had a total of nearly 8.2GW of solar PV deployed across the UK.
We are required by our EU state aid approval to carry out a review of FITs this year to ensure that tariff levels provide sufficient incentive to potential generators whilst not over-compensating applicants to the scheme. The Government proposed changes to FITs as part of that review, on which we consulted widely between 27th August and 23rd October. We are currently analysing feedback submitted during the consultation and intend to publish a Government response in due course.
This review, along with other measures to control costs under the levy control framework, should help ensure that renewables deployment remains affordable. Consultations have closed and we expect to provide the government responses in due course.
[1] Energy Trends
