Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what experience the consultants employed to produce the Feed-in-Tariff rates published in the current Feed-in-Tariff consultation have of working in the solar power industry.

WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff were appointed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change following an open competition through the Crown Commercial Services Framework. The requirement was to update cost assumptions across all technologies eligible for the UK Feed-in Tariffs (FITs). This is work which the company already has experience of carrying out, having been involved in updating cost assumptions for FITs in 2012.

Specifically in relation to solar, members of the WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff project team were able to demonstrate experience of working directly with solar PV projects, developing and managing them at all stages of their lifecycle. As part of the work that they carried out, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff also engaged directly with a number of key actors in the solar industry.