UK - Support solar panels now

The introduction of solar panels feed-in tariffs to the energy bill may not sound enthralling. Yet it is raising blood pressure among green groups, politicians and government officials alike.

Liberal Democrat, Conservative and backbench Labour MPs, along with environmental groups, have been calling for a tariff to offer incentives for households, businesses and communities to generate energy from renewable sources (such as solar panels, wind or biomass) and feed it back into the national grid.

This would move us towards our target of generating 15% of UK energy from renewable sources by 2020. We are currently hovering around 2%, lagging behind all of Europe except Malta and Luxembourg. We need all the incentives we can employ.

Germany introduced a feed-in tariff in 1990 and has seen its renewable energy market soar. Domestic turnover in 2007 was €25bn, with 250,000 people employed in the renewables sector. This is exactly the kind of boost that we need, particularly if recession continues to bite.

The good news is that the government has finally introduced a power in the bill to create solar panels feed-in tariffs. Yet collective blood pressure is still high, as the concession is too vague to offer certainty that they will be set up within the next two years, or introduced in a workable form. The power is deliberately broad to give officials space to work out the details later.

Energy minister Lord Hunt of Kings Heath demonstrated the government’s lack of urgency, saying: “Our hope is that a feed-in tariff scheme will be operational in 2010 … I have to say that this is a hope, and I cannot give that as an absolute commitment … ”

His commitment to a renewable heat incentive was even vaguer. Almost half the UK’s carbon emissions are generated through heat, yet the minister could not even promise to make a start on the detail by 2010.

In August a campaign was launched to highlight the serious risk of a climate change “tipping point” in 100 months. Every day that we dither and delay is another day closer to that tipping point where we can no longer stop irreversible climate change.

We need to start doing government in a new way. There is no time for yet another consultation, another green paper, or another review. Far better to get a tariff up and running, and then refine it as we go along. If we wait until the mechanism is perfect, it will never happen. And we can draw on the wisdom of schemes that have already been set up in other countries.

Now is the time to pull out the stops and ensure that feed-in tariffs are up and running within 12 months. Any less is not enough.

Source - The Guardian