Govt Threatens To Stop Development Of Large Scale Solar Farms
The Government is threatening to stop the development of large scale commercial “solar farms” and prevent speculators from taking advantage of tax breaks and the feed-in tariff scheme.
With the Government threatening to stop the development of commercial solar farms, solar energy firms are threatening to take legal action against the Government.
The Energy Minister, Greg Barker, has expressed concerns that speculators are taking advantage of the green subsidies which were intended to benefit householders. The feed-in tariff scheme provides subsidies for households which install small and medium scale sources of renewable energy such as solar panels. However, there are concerns that companies are building “solar farms” and filling fields with solar panels. In doing so it’s argued they are using up the £400 million a year subsidy scheme intended to benefit householders.
There are concerns amongst ministers that the subsidy scheme will be used up before householders can be persuaded to have solar panels installed.
The Renewable Energy Association (REA) says that solar schemes planned for housing associations, schools and hospitals will generate double the amount of electricity compared with a solar farm. However, the Government is set to review the feed-in tariff scheme and the REA says this could lead to many of these projects being scrapped or suspended if the developers believe there’s a doubt over the amount of money they will make out of them.
The chief executive of REA, Gaynor Hartnell said “Some of our members have been talking about legal action when these concerns started to be raised about ground-mounted PV”.
Meanwhile an Italian company which wants to build solar farms in the UK, Next Energy Capital, says small scale developments won’t bring in the investment needed to develop a solar industry in the UK and that only large scale projects will achieve this.
Utility Exchange has reported recently that large scale solar projects have been granted planning permission e.g. the solar farm planned for the Lanhydrock estate in Cornwall. However, the Department of Energy said anyone who had already been granted planning permission would be allowed to continue with their developments.