Solar Power (Feed-in Tariff)

Julian Sturdy Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Chris Kelly (Dudley South) (Con)]

Post-privatisation, more than a dozen utility companies provided a great deal of energy competition in this country. Sadly, under Labour, however, the energy market consolidated so that we now have, as the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Dan Rogerson) said, the big six. We also inherited feed-in tariffs in a shambles. It is my belief that the Government’s reform of FITs will protect our energy mix.

As the Secretary of State has pointed out, installation costs of solar photovoltaics have fallen by at least 30% since the FITs scheme began. The Government are controlling the cost of the subsidy because the average installation is now around £9,000—down from £12,000—so the rate of return has shot up.

If the Government’s proposed reforms are introduced, we will mirror Germany’s FITs subsidy levels from January onwards, while still spending £867 million over four years. Money intended to support decentralised energy will not now subsidise energy-inefficient buildings under new energy efficiency requirements, which can only be a good thing. Solar will still be the most subsidised renewable technology, receiving twice the subsidy available for inshore wind. The Government’s changes will also protect consumer energy bills. Labour Members must tell us by how much they would be prepared to increase the average household’s energy bill in order to maintain high tariffs for solar. The amount might be as much as £55 per household.

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making some powerful points. It is true that we must make feed-in tariffs more sustainable, although, like many other Members who have spoken, I have concerns about the proposed time scales. Is this not about making the system fairer—fairer for those who are already signed up and going through the process, but also, as my hon. Friend says, fairer for households that are struggling with high energy bills?

[Chris Kelly]

I agree, but I believe that the consultation timetable is reasonable. I think that people will have time to plan and prepare, and to register installations that are currently under way. In September, 16,000 solar photovoltaic installations were registered, double the number registered in June. There are now 100,000 installations nationally, three times as many as were projected, and the costs of solar PV have fallen by at least a third since the FITs scheme began.

The scheme was designed to encourage deployment of additional small-scale low-carbon electricity generation, particularly by organisations, businesses, communities and individuals who had not traditionally been engaged in the electricity market, many of them in our constituencies. The Government rightly announced the largest reduction in tariffs for the large-scale solar projects. The Government’s proposed FITs reductions for domestic solar energy installations are out for public consultation until 23 December, and are due to come in to effect in April next year. I believe that that is a sensible time scale, and I hope that the Secretary of State will consider carefully the submissions he receives.

The Government are right to address payments for FITs from more than one PV installation located on different sites under single ownership. I am thinking of the likes of Asda, which was mentioned earlier. I think that 80% of the full subsidy is a sensible level. The scheme we inherited from Labour was based on wildly inaccurate projections and participation, and therefore on entirely unrealistic financial assumptions. Any programme in any Department must be sustainable and based on realistic finances. Without urgent action, the whole FITs budget would be swallowed up by solar alone within months, depriving other renewable technologies of support through FITs. Microgeneration, for instance, is a key part of the energy mix that we will need for future energy security. The FITs subsidy cannot go disproportionately to solar.

Each week beyond 1 April next year on the old subsidy tariff would cost more than £500,000 per day, or about £3.8 million per week. While £867 million over four years is a sustainable subsidy, more than that would be unsustainable. None of these changes is retrospective, and fairness is therefore being safeguarded. There has been a big fall in solar PV costs, and a big increase in the rate of return. That will exhaust the FITs budget unless it is urgently addressed. The rate of return needs to be reduced from 12% to 5%. The irony is that Labour wants millions of families in fuel poverty to subsidise a few thousand well-off people with solar panels by adding up to £55 a year to the average bill, with no reform of the feed-in tariff.