MSE News: Legal battle launched over solar subsidy cuts

Former_MSE_Helen

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"Legal battle launched over solar subsidy cuts ..."

Read the full story:
Legal battle launched over solar subsidy cuts

pete_v

Good. I have no desire for my taxes to pay for other people's electricity.

If domestic solar panels can be made economically viable, then great. But if they're not, the rest of us should not be paying people to install them. Let them stand on their own two feet like any other form of energy.

Pete

Cardew

pete_v wrote: »

Good. I have no desire for my taxes to pay for other people's electricity.

If domestic solar panels can be made economically viable, then great. But if they're not, the rest of us should not be paying people to install them. Let them stand on their own two feet like any other form of energy.

Pete

The stupidly high subsidy(FIT) is not paid from taxes but a levy on the electricity bills of all other customers.

This means that even the poorest in the land - pensioners etc - pay for the well-off to enjoy a large income. Even worse is the fact that the FIT scheme has been exploited by the so called Rent A Roof firms finding a loophole so they get all the subsidies meant for an individual. Many firms will be raking in many £millions each, inflation linked for 25 years and paid for by us electricity customers.

The vast majority cannot take advantage of the subsidy as they rent not own, live in flats or houses with unsuitable roofs.

As soon as the cuts were announced giving the 12 Dec deadline, a feeding frenzy started and the UK's solar capacity doubled in 6 weeks.

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/news/decc_reveal_deadline_week_figures_2356/

According to DECC, between December 4 and 12, a staggering 29,937 installations were registered for the feed-in tariff scheme.
Solar PV systems installed between these dates accounted for 125.93MW of the UK’s solar capacity, 80.16MW of which was sub 50kW.

The astonishing figures show that since October 31, when changes to the feed-in tariff were announced, an astronomical 351.83MW of solar capacity has been installed in the UK. In just six weeks the UK has more than doubled capacity, with 51 percent of 2011’s installed capacity put in place after DECC’s announcement.
December 12, deadline day, saw a further 95 sub 50kW installations registered on the MCS database.

Friends of the Earth as usual see everything through a 'Green Haze' 'if its green its wonderful!'

I don't have a lot of time for this Government, but by putting an end to this crazy system of subsidy, they are at least showing some sense.

corbyboy

The timing of this was unfair to people who had already ordered the panels but not had them installed.

However, I am happy that the new policy means that pensioners are no longer subsidising the electricity bills of people wealthy enough to install solar panels.

Onyourcase

pete_v wrote: »

Good. I have no desire for my taxes to pay for other people's electricity.

If domestic solar panels can be made economically viable, then great. But if they're not, the rest of us should not be paying people to install them. Let them stand on their own two feet like any other form of energy.

Pete

It's a good point. There will be a point in the future when they are economically viable. Unfortunately, that will be reached when energy prices have risen more.

jamesd

Hopefully subsidies are on the way out completely. There's every reason to stop them now and wait for current vents to unfold. Things like First Solar's recent profit forecast where they report that massive new capacity coming onstream from chinese producers will produce downward pressure on prices indefinitely and that their strategy over the next three years is to "shift away from existing markets that are dependent on government subsidies, toward building solar-power plants in the U.S. and other countries where it aims to serve utilities to compete against conventional power generators". That's exactly what we need solar to do: be competitive without subsidies.

That sort of thing is also going to make subsidies for wind generation look pretty short-sighted within a few years.

Cardew wrote: »

As soon as the cuts were announced giving the 12 Dec deadline, a feeding frenzy started and the UK's solar capacity doubled in 6 weeks.

Wow! That's a pretty impressive demonstration of why it was right to give relatively little notice.

The_Green_Hornet

corbyboy wrote: »

The timing of this was unfair to people who had already ordered the panels but not had them installed.

However, I am happy that the new policy means that pensioners are no longer subsidising the electricity bills of people wealthy enough to install solar panels.

Are these the same pensioners (poor and rich alike) who receive winter fuel allowances which are being paid for by the British tax payer to the tune of £2,831 million in 2010-11?

Cardew

Did anyone hear the disingenuous interview on Radio 5 by the boss of Homesun(A Rent –a Roof company) this morning?

He explained how the solar industry raises huge sums for the Treasury and the subsidies(FIT) are not paid by the Tax Payer but by the large Energy Companies – who are howling in protest!

Not a mention that the funds for those subsidies are paid by all customers, in higher bills, to the Energy companies.

The whole theme was they were fighting against injustice imposed by Government; not mentioning that the real reason is that they wanted a few more months to feed on the rich pickings of absurd levels of subsidy.

samizdat

The fact is the government frequently changes tax breaks, and this is often unfair, but that does not mean people affected should be able to get changes overturned as unlawful.

For example, Gordon Brown abolished Industrial Buildings Allowances with no consultation, yet this valuable incentive was supposed to last 25 years, and many projects were funded in the expectation that they would continue to be available.

I rang the Treasury Department immediately after the Budget speech to seek clarification about grandfathering rights for current projects, and was told with a degree of scorn that no, there would be absolutely no relief for them, other than a derisory "taper" lasting about three years. The economic viability of many projects was seriously undermined.

Ultimately though, the government needs to control tax and spending policy without interference from the courts.

bris

pete_v wrote: »

Good. I have no desire for my taxes to pay for other people's electricity.

If domestic solar panels can be made economically viable, then great. But if they're not, the rest of us should not be paying people to install them. Let them stand on their own two feet like any other form of energy.

Pete

You mean like the fossil fuel industry which gets subsidies worth 10 times what all the renewable energies get combined.
The coal used to generate our electricity has been subsidised for years ever since maggie destroyed our coal industry.

Nuclear power, the cost to the tax payer just to decommision the last generation of nuclear power is going to be £72billion.

The cost of solar subsidies are nothing in comparison to whats already been paid and will be paid again to kep the lights on, so don't think for a minute your hard done by just because of solar power.

wuthton

bris wrote: »

You mean like the fossil fuel industry which gets subsidies worth 10 times what all the renewable energies get combined.
The coal used to generate our electricity has been subsidised for years ever since maggie destroyed our coal industry.

Nuclear power, the cost to the tax payer just to decommision the last generation of nuclear power is going to be £72billion.

The cost of solar subsidies are nothing in comparison to whats already been paid and will be paid again to kep the lights on, so don't think for a minute your hard done by just because of solar power.

Does anyone know the level of subsidy/kwh produced for fossil, nuclear solar etc? For me this would be the most interesting breakdown of cost.