Policy News

Friday 02 October 2009

Under the FiT proposals, some micro-generators below 50kW will only receive 9p/kWh

While some early investors have complained of not qualifying for Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) at all, microgenerators with less than 50kW capacity have expressed ‘outrage' at having to accept largely reduced rates when they are automatically transferred to the system next year.

YouGen - a community of people interested in renewable energy - set up an ‘equal cashback for microgenerators' petition two weeks ago, calling for all existing microgenerators with a capacity of less than 50kW to receive the same level of FiTs as those installed after the scheme is introduced in April 2010.

The government is currently in a period of consultation on FiTs and under the consultation, all operators who installed a generator accredited under the Renewables Obligation (RO) before July 15 2009 with a capacity of less than 50kW will automatically transfer to FITs.

However, it is proposed that these projects will only be eligible for generation payments of 9p/kWh, regardless of technology.

This is in contrast to projects installed in the first year of FiTs (2010 - 2011), where tariff's will be technology dependent and proposed rates are up to four times higher than those offered to early investors - peaking at 36.5p/kWh for retrofit solar PV installations with a total capacity of less than 4kW. Only new biomass projects of less than 50kW capacity will receive a rate as low as 9p/kWh.

This issue comes alongside further concerns with the FiTs proposals, which were raised at an event in Bristol on Tuesday (29 September), when some delegates expressed anger at early investors not being able to qualify for FiTs payments at all (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).

Founder of YouGen, Cathy Debenham, said: "It is strange that a scheme that's meant to encourage people to take up microgeneration will punish those who have led the way."

"These are the people who could act as advocates and encourage take up, but many of them feel let down and cheated, despair, discrimination, outrage, horrified and illogical are just some of the adjectives in emails sent to me by YouGen users," she added.

Ms Debenham also expressed concern that a number of people who would be affected by FiTs were unaware of the implications of the proposals - leading her to launch the petition and contact energy providers encouraging them to make customers aware of the scheme.

Explaining why she believed the FiTs were so unfair, she said: "The majority of the early investors didn't do it to make money, although some of the most recent ones have been encouraged by the promise of the Feed-in Tariff. However, they have been taken aback by the sheer inequality in reward and understandably those whose installations are now going to take even longer to pay back are particularly unhappy."

One of YouGen's members who has signed the petition - Alan Langmaid from Totnes, Devon - claimed that the new FiTs payments would give him less than half of the £500 he is set to receive for his solar panels this year on his current rate.

Commenting on the government's proposals, he said: "It's despicable, unfair and is done for the very worst reasons - to attract people financially while punishing those of us who pioneered PV at our own expense and risk."

"It's unethical, immoral and surely breaks every equality law they have devised themselves," he added.

The petition hopes to raise awareness of the proposals and to encourage people to respond to the consultation.