Mark Spencer
Main Page: Mark Spencer (Conservative - Sherwood)
Mr Davey
I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman has got his facts wrong. The support for renewable energy costs 6p a day per household, and in this financial year the warm home discount will result in 1 million of the poorest pensioners getting a discount of £130—so I have to say the hon. Gentleman is wrong.
Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)
19. How many solar panels were installed in the most recent month for which figures are available.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
About 13,800 solar PV installations, with a total capacity of 58.5 MW, were confirmed on to the feed-in tariff scheme’s central register in May 2012. I am pleased to report that that is more than double the number of installations—with more than triple the capacity—that were confirmed in the same month last year. Preliminary figures indicate even stronger growth this month.
Mr Spencer
Clearly, this is a very popular technology. Given that—and the discussion that has just taken place in the Chamber—might it be time to consider switching subsidy from wind farms to solar panels?
Gregory Barker
My hon. Friend is right: it is a very popular technology, and as our reformed FIT scheme is now driving down the costs and helping to promote competition, it is also scalable to a very large scale. Solar will be included properly for the first time in our renewables road map that we will publish later in the year. Solar will have a meaningful part to play in the energy future of Great Britain.