For solar energy, smaller is better, UK officials decide
Large-scale solar energy projects are all well and good, but they shouldn’t be underwritten at the expense of households that want to add solar panels to their rooftops, British officials have decided.
The UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change confirmed today that it will roll out new rates for some feed-in tariffs (FITs), which are payments made by utilities to people and businesses that install renewable energy systems and “feed” the power generated back into the electricity grid. The tariffs provide a guaranteed amount of money for every kilowatt-hour of energy generated and are designed as an incentive to increase the adoption of solar and other clean-energy technologies.
In countries like Germany and Spain, FITs have encouraged rapid growth in renewables, particularly for solar energy.
The UK, which had been viewed as lagging in its renewable-energy efforts, launched its FIT incentive program in April 2010. Less than one year later, though, officials announced they intended to cut the tariffs for larger solar projects because the number of such installations posed a “threat” to smaller, household-scale solar improvements.
“Without action the scheme would be overwhelmed,” says Greg Barker, the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Minister. “I want to drive an ambitious rollout of new green energy technologies in homes, communities and small businesses and the FIT scheme has a vital part to play in building a more decentralised energy economy.”
Starting Aug. 1, those who install large-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems of more than 250 kilowatts (KW) will be paid at a rate of 8.5 p per kilowatt-hour. Solar-panel installations between 50 and 150 kilowatts, on the other hand, will generate payments more than twice as large: 19 p per kilowatt-hour.
New FIT rates are also going into effect for anaerobic digestion systems, which typically use agricultural waste to produce natural-gas energy. As of August, anaerobic digestion systems of under 250 kilowatts will generate a tariff of 14 p per kilowatt-hour; systems that are larger, but still under 500 kilowatts, will see FIT rates of 13 p per kilowatt-hour.
