(Phrases: renewable power consultancy Longevity Energy).
The continuing lack of a government-backed assured value for promoting again surplus clear energy to the UK power grid is discouraging companies, property companies and industrial landlords from putting in photo voltaic PV methods at their properties and holding again the enlargement of photo voltaic throughout the nation.
Anthony Maguire, Managing Director at Longevity Energy, defined why the absence of a government-backed fastened export tariff is hampering industrial and industrial (C&I) photo voltaic rollout and inflicting the UK to fall behind different European nations together with Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
He mentioned, “The most important impediment to the UK fulfilling its photo voltaic potential is the dearth of a secure and supportive coverage from Westminster. There is no such thing as a fastened export value, no web metering framework, and no ecosystem for mid-sized community-level photo voltaic installations.
“Photo voltaic within the UK doesn’t require direct subsidies – however what it does want is healthier long-term pricing certainty to unlock funding, which present Sensible Export Ensures (SEGs) set by power companies don’t present.”
Maguire’s feedback comply with the announcement final month by power secretary Ed Miliband about new guidelines that may require almost all new houses in England to be fitted with obligatory photo voltaic panels. The foundations will kind a part of the Authorities’s new Future Houses Customary, which is about to publish this autumn.
Earlier this yr, in March, the Authorities introduced a £180M funding for putting in photo voltaic panels at a whole lot of colleges and hospitals throughout the UK, to be delivered by way of new state-owned power firm Nice British Vitality.
However in accordance with Maguire, the Authorities is overlooking the numerous contribution that photo voltaic methods put in on the roofs of places of work, warehouses, factories, retail centres, and different industrial buildings similar to automotive parks might make to lowering emissions and decarbonising the UK’s power system.
He mentioned, “The enterprise case within the UK merely isn’t compelling sufficient proper now for firms, landlords or tenants to put money into rooftop photo voltaic methods. The UK lacks a correctly priced export tariff that will permit asset house owners whose personal electrical energy consumption is modest to promote on the excess energy that they generate at a assured value.
“The restricted monetary incentive to putting in rooftop photo voltaic is the rationale why it’s nonetheless a “good to have” for companies and never a strategic precedence.”
Maguire recognized different measures that the Authorities might put in place to encourage extra photo voltaic uptake amongst UK firms and industrial property house owners.
“Establishing a framework that corresponds to the US neighborhood photo voltaic mannequin might dramatically broaden photo voltaic installations. In American states the place these insurance policies are in place, giant rooftops and brownfield websites host mid-scale PV methods constructed by personal builders or power suppliers that provide energy to offsite residential clients and companies alike on a subscription foundation.”
He continued, “One other measure for the UK to undertake could be a regulatory rooftop utilization mandate just like the laws accepted by France in November 2022, which requires minimal photo voltaic protection on all new and present industrial roofs and automotive parks. It’s these sorts of insurance policies that shift photo voltaic from being elective to turning into important.”
Maguire concluded by saying, “The present Authorities has taken main steps in current months to develop photo voltaic uptake within the UK. However Westminster should do extra if it needs to face an opportunity of hitting its acknowledged purpose of internet hosting 47GW of photo voltaic capability by 2030, as specified by its Clear Energy 2030 Motion Plan.
“Setting up a assured multi-year export value would supply the steadiness and certainty for companies and asset house owners to decide to photo voltaic for the long run with the information that they’ll make an inexpensive return on their funding.”
