William Powell AM, Welsh Liberal Democrat Shadow Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, is calling on the Westminster Government to reconsider its recent announcement of a reduction in Feed-in-Tariffs (FITs): the price that is paid to people who generate their own electricity and sell the surplus back to the National Grid.

Under the current FITs scheme, those who fit solar panels to existing properties can sell any surplus power back to the Grid for 43.3p/KWh. The Government is proposing to reduce this rate to 21p/KWh for installations registered and fitted after 12th December, 2011.

William  said: “I fear that this proposed change could undermine the Government’s commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and the promotion of renewable energy. It could act as a major disincentive for families and those who run community facilities to fit solar panels, and seriously jeopardises the UK’s ability to reach its renewable energy targets.

“I recognise that the FITs scheme has been a victim of its own success, with nearly three times as many applications received than anticipated, making the initial rates unsustainable in the medium to long term. However, I believe that by making this premature announcement, while the consultation on FITs reform is still underway, the UK Government is risking our long term renewable energy requirements for short term savings.”

“This proposal may threaten not only domestic green energy generation, but also the very green jobs agenda that we all want to promote. I have today written to Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, to urge him to reconsider these proposals and continue with the consultation process in order to achieve a fairer alternative.”

Although full-time jobs at Sharp’s solar-panel plant in Wrexham are safe, the government cuts have caused the management to reduce the number of agency workers, and there must be doubts about future expansion. (BBC report here.) North-East Wales AM, and former leader of Wrexham council, Aled Roberts is naturally concerned.

On the wider UK front, the Local Government Association and the LGA Liberal Democrat Group are lobbying the Government over the proposed reduction. While they appreciate the hard work done by Lib Dems in government over renewable energy, such as allowing local authorities to sell energy to the national grid (previous Conservative and Labour governments banned councils from doing this), they are calling on the government to protect community run schemes – including those run or planned by councils – by extending the cut-off date for these schemes to the end of the financial year.

My own view is that the cap imposed earlier to prevent big corporations vacuuming up the solar energy grant pot was justified, but this abrupt change is not. It sends a discouraging signal to micro-generators, whose cause I have supported for many years. More immediately and seriously, it jeopardises small enterprises, as our Liberal Democrat AM reports. Peter Black says: “One local electrical company who contacted me expressed serious concerns about the speed with which this change is being implemented. He said that the backlash from customers has been massive already; with many cancelling, and requesting refund of their deposits. At the same time, his company are attempting to secure two to three times the proposed levels of stock, to allow them to get through as many customers as possible within the time allocated. He did not know if the company would survive the week.”

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