A loophole that could result in a rash of industrial-scale solar panel farms across the countryside is to be closed by the Government.
Energy minister Greg Barker said subsidies for renewable power should not be exploited by companies planning massive ‘sun farms’ in rural areas.
The Feed In Tariff scheme was launched in April to help meet EU targets for renewable energy.
Energy minister Greg Barker said subsidies for renewable power should not be exploited by companies planning massive 'sun farms' in rural areas
Energy minister Greg Barker said subsidies for renewable power should not be exploited by companies planning massive 'sun farms' in rural areas
It guarantees owners of solar panels, domestic wind turbines and hydroelectric turbines a minimum tax-free return for 25 years.
FIT was intended to encourage households and small firms to go green and sell the power they do not use to the National Grid.
But it has attracted interest from international investors who are offering farmers up to £50,000 to fill fields with solar panels.
Work on a 30-acre sun farm in Wiltshire is due to start soon.
Yesterday Mr Barker said: ‘We inherited a system that simply failed to anticipate industrial-scale, stand-alone, green field solar. While we will not act retrospectively, large green field-based solar farms should not be allowed to distort the available funding for domestic solar technologies.’
A departmental source said: ‘We’ll be looking closely at this to avoid a small number of solar speculators cashing in on this loophole.’
Source - DailyMail
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