The UK coalition government has been accused of a policy U-turn on supporting early adopters of renewable energy.
In the run-up to the General Election, both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats vowed to equal Feed-in Tariff (FIT) rates for the pioneering installers of renewable energy.
Now, according to the Microgenerators Fairness Campaign group, the coalition Government has broken the promise and misled the public on the reasons behind the policy switch.
According to the campaign group, both parties are on record saying they would pay higher rates of FIT to early adopters of solar panels, wind turbines and micro hydro schemes, but now they have reneged on their word.
A pre-election promise made to Paul Truelove, the organiser of the Microgenerators Fairness Campaign, by Conservative MP Charles Hendry, stated: “I understand the frustration at the system which has been put in place for those of you who were early users of micro-generation.
“When we forced the [previous] Government to reluctantly accept the principle of the feed-in tariff in the Energy Bill 2008, we had anticipated that a fair and swift consultation would encourage the uptake of micro-generation on a large scale. We are therefore disappointed that the feed-in tariff is still to come into force.
The message added: “It is also clearly unfair to you that you will remain on the current funding mechanism. You will be pleased therefore to hear that we have decided that if a Conservative Government is elected, we would ensure that micro-generation equipment installed before feed-in tariffs come into effect will nevertheless be entitled to the same terms as new installations.
“I hope that this is good news for you, and once again thank you for taking the time to write.”
However, in a recent email from West Dorset Conservative MP, Oliver Letwin, he broke the news that the cash shortage in the public purse meant the FIT scheme could no longer be extended.
In the message, he wrote: "As you will recall, after thinking through the issue, the Conservative party adopted the commitment before the election of enlarging the scope of the feed-in tariff to include pioneers who had installed their machinery before the start-date of the new scheme.
“As you will also remember, this did not find its way into our Programme for Government following our coalition agreement. I then - as I think you know- raised this issue with Chris Huhne, and he had very detailed discussions with his officials about the costs of administering a system in which new installations qualify for FITs but old ones don't - in the hope that he could persuade his officials and himself that he could establish a value-for-money case for extending the FITs to the pioneer installations on the grounds that there would be administrative savings to counter-balance the fact that money was being given to people who had already installed machines.
"Unfortunately, Chris was unable to establish that the administrative savings would be anything like large enough to counterbalance the additional costs - and I am afraid he has therefore concluded that this would not represent value for money."
Paul Truelove of the UK Microgenerators campaign group says he fears “more lies and deceptions” as the government “bulldozes forward” without including the pre-FIT micorgenerators.
He added: “Many of the early adopters and pioneers deserve the recognition for their dedication and persistence in working their way through the difficulties and bureaucratic barriers to get their systems established. Their experience has fuelled the development of the FIT however, many are now financially worse off as a result of this FIT scheme.
“The statement made by West Dorset MP, Oliver Letwin has glaring omissions contained within it.
“[For example,] there are very few administrative costs to include the early adopters at the rate that they deserve. All the data that the utility companies require is supplied by Ofgem. Indeed, the process of transferring generators who were registered under the renewable obligations scheme is currently underway and should be completed in October 2010.
“All that is required is a letter from the DECC to the utilities companies stating 'Please transfer all generators to the same tariff rate regardless of installation date'. The cost of this action would run to less than £150.00.
“There is no direct cost to the Government as the FIT is funded by the 26 million existing electricity consumers. We have calculated that it would add £0.07p annually to their bills over the 25 years to include the early adopters. To put the £0.07p into context, it would represent less than the cost of one third of one cigarette a year.”
And Ivan Lucas of renewable suppliers Navitron, added: "The British public has put its trust in the coalition government to re-establish trust in politics. It's therefore very disappointing that the new government has been caught out so soon.
"It is worrying that the decision makers do not understand the funding mechanism for FITs. The continuation of this policy will see more PV systems ripped off roofs to be replaced by smaller more lucrative FIT-qualifying systems - contributing a net reduction in installed PV capacity."
Juliet Davenport, founder and CEO of leading renewable provider Good Energy, said the government decision was unfair and could undermine the consumer take-up of the forthcoming Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).
She added: “The UK microgeneration industry owes its existence to these early adopters who installed their own generation equipment because they wanted to make a difference to climate change. Many invested their life savings in such schemes because they believed it was the right thing to do – and they deserve to be recognised and rewarded for their entrepreneurial attitude, not penalised.”
“Now we know the Government isn't going to do anything on the feed-in tariff for the early-adopters, we need a prompt decision about the RHI. In view of the Government’s decision, early-adopters of renewable heat will likely be deterred from any new investment in case they get the same treatment.”
Larry, Canada around 1 year ago