The Great 'Get Paid To Generate Energy' Hunt

keith_r59

Cardew wrote: »

This BBC Money Box is of huge importance to those contemplating ‘rent a roof’ schemes; and even those who bought their systems.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00y1vxr/Money_Box_29_01_2011/

Listen to introduction and again at 6mins 30 seconds.

Perhaps the most important is that many Banks and building societies will not lend/mortgage to houses with leased roofs. (I wonder if there is to be a health warning on Rent a roof brochures)

The BBC has also learnt that the Government is concerned at private companies(the rent a roof companies) are creaming off the subsidies meant for individuals. As mentioned many times on MSE, this is the ‘loophole’ that they are exploiting.

Apparently PV systems will cost £8.6Billion in subsidies and save £420 million; which all consumers – even those in flats etc on low income pay.

The Minister gave an assurance that the Government would honour existing PV subsidies, but couldn’t speak for future Governments.

It hasn't really added anything new to the debate that we didn't already know and the bit about not mortgaging houses with leased roofs came from a Moneybox listener (Sally from Cheltenham) and not from an official bank source.

Doc_N

Interesting article in the Guardian today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/06/solar-farms-threaten-green-subsidy


Extract:

A government announcement is expected this week on the fate of the scheme, with a review of the feed-in-tariff (FIT) policy, originally planned for 2012, brought forward in response to an increasing number of solar farms being granted planning permission.

keith_r59

Doc_N wrote: »

Interesting article in the Guardian today:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/06/solar-farms-threaten-green-subsidy


Extract:

A government announcement is expected this week on the fate of the scheme, with a review of the feed-in-tariff (FIT) policy, originally planned for 2012, brought forward in response to an increasing number of solar farms being granted planning permission.

Yes, it looks likely that the FIT payments for new installations are going to be reduced sooner than originally planned however existing installations will be unaffected.

Extract:

Tariff levels for the FITs will be reviewed, though the government said it will not act on them retrospectively.

ChrisJD

keith_r59 wrote: »

Tariff levels for the FITs will be reviewed, though the government said it will not act on them retrospectively.

My guess is that they will ramp down much more steeply, or cap, the rates for significantly larger installations. I wonder what they plan for "roof rental" schemes?

Doc_N

keith_r59 wrote: »

Yes, it looks likely that the FIT payments for new installations are going to be reduced sooner than originally planned however existing installations will be unaffected.

Extract:

Tariff levels for the FITs will be reviewed, though the government said it will not act on them retrospectively.

There's no chance that this government will act retrospectively and tinker with the payments on existing installations, but you certainly can't assume that all future governments will take the same line.

As someone with an installation that depends very much on the FIT payments for it to make any economic sense that's my only real worry about the scheme.

jackieblack

Doc_N wrote: »

As someone with an installation that depends very much on the FIT payments for it to make any economic sense that's my only real worry about the scheme.

Same here!

keith_r59

Doc_N wrote: »

There's no chance that this government will act retrospectively and tinker with the payments on existing installations, but you certainly can't assume that all future governments will take the same line.

As someone with an installation that depends very much on the FIT payments for it to make any economic sense that's my only real worry about the scheme.

You are right you can't assume that FIT payments won't be amended by a future government but the risk of them being removed altogether is very slim in my opinion. The UK is legally bound to the target of producing 15% of energy from renewables by 2020 so I doubt that anything would happen before then.

It's probably more likely that the FIT payment link to inflation will be changed from RPI to CPI.

Doc_N

keith_r59 wrote: »

You are right you can't assume that FIT payments won't be amended by a future government but the risk of them being removed altogether is very slim in my opinion. The UK is legally bound to the target of producing 15% of energy from renewables by 2020 so I doubt that anything would happen before then.

It's probably more likely that the FIT payment link to inflation will be changed from RPI to CPI.

I'd agree that the risk is slim (mainly because FIT payments are paid by energy company customers rather than directly by the government) but once the systems are in the targets will be achieved, whatever happens subsequently to the FIT payments.

The current projections suggest a pretty small addition to electricity bills to cover these payments, and while that stays small there's unlikely to be a problem. If it becomes large in the future, it's going to be tempting for a government to reneague on the present commitment for populist reasons. I think that's going to be some way down the line, though, and with luck it will never happen!

grahamc2003

Doc_N wrote: »

I'd agree that the risk is slim (mainly because FIT payments are paid by energy company customers rather than directly by the government) but once the systems are in the targets will be achieved, whatever happens subsequently to the FIT payments.

The current projections suggest a pretty small addition to electricity bills to cover these payments, and while that stays small there's unlikely to be a problem. If it becomes large in the future, it's going to be tempting for a government to reneague on the present commitment for populist reasons. I think that's going to be some way down the line, though, and with luck it will never happen!

What figures do you have for the current and projected additional costs on bills to pay for the fits?

While the current costs I have are low (not surprising since the fits are new), the projected 2020 costs seems pretty large to me, bearing in mind the fits are just one element of the numerous green extras on our bills. Currently, British gas tells me from using the latest figures available (i.e. last year), 7% of my bill is for environmental initiatives (such as the fit, plus many more). I can't find a projected 2020 figure for the total costs of all subsidies, so I'd be interested in that if you have those figures.

I'd expect the percentage to rise very quickly up to 2020, and the fact that the government is funding the rhi from central funds and not loading them onto bills seems to be consistent with that view.

Doc_N

grahamc2003 wrote: »

What figures do you have for the current and projected additional costs on bills to pay for the fits?

While the current costs I have are low (not surprising since the fits are new), the projected 2020 costs seems pretty large to me, bearing in mind the fits are just one element of the numerous green extras on our bills. Currently, British gas tells me from using the latest figures available (i.e. last year), 7% of my bill is for environmental initiatives (such as the fit, plus many more). I can't find a projected 2020 figure for the total costs of all subsidies, so I'd be interested in that if you have those figures.

I'd expect the percentage to rise very quickly up to 2020, and the fact that the government is funding the rhi from central funds and not loading them onto bills seems to be consistent with that view.

I agree with you. REAL talks about an extra £10 pa by 2020, but I rather doubt that:

"FITs are paid to you by Licensed Electricity Suppliers approved by Ofgem, they are not paid by the government. The licensed suppliers raise the money for the FIT by charging a small premium to all of their electricity customers. They are also permitted to charge for administration costs. It is predicted that by 2020 each electricity customer in the UK will have to pay roughly an extra £10 on their annual bills to cover this. Once a year the LESs will settle the amount they have paid between them to ensure consumers are all charged the same surcharge on their bill."