Major solar businesses face a grim future after Monday’s announcement the government will slash solar subsidies for projects registered after 12 December.
Industry bodies including the Renewable Energy Association have warned many home owner and companies will not take part in the scheme as it could now take 25 years to make a return on their investments. The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) fast track consultation confirmed solar incentives will be cut by by over 50%, cutting the feed-in tariffs available to domestic and small scale business installations from 43p per kWh to just 21p per kWh.
The Business Green portal reported on “at least one firm that is now expecting to begin redundancy proceedings this week, as it will need to give staff a 30-day notice period before laying them off. A number of other firms have similarly warned job cuts will be announced in the coming weeks as a direct result of the government’s proposed changes.”
One subscriber to the Cut but Don’t Kill campaign said: “We are a small family firm who have invested largely in time, effort and money to gain the correct training and experience in order to offer our customers the service they deserve. Without a shadow of a doubt, if these measures are introduced we will struggle to keep trading.”
The campaign has warned such extreme cuts will “kill the UK solar industry stone dead”, destroying up to 4,000 companies and 25,000 jobs. It plans to stage a protest at Downing Street on 23 November in an effort to persuade MPs to block the planned cuts to the feed-in tariff and agree to more modest reductions in the level of support.
Watch this space.
As always, I would be very interested to hear your views.
Elinore Mackay
Editor
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