Cornish heating and eco energy installer, Govan Ltd, has backed the Government’s announcement yesterday that it is to rethink its Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) strategy.
The Government is concerned that too many commercial solar farms are taking advantage of a cash incentive that was intended for domestic and small business use.
Govan Ltd’s MD, Daryl Govan, said: “Solar farms, although valuable in their contribution to sustainable energy, are currently eating into and threatening the future of a FIT fund that was meant to incentivise consumers to purchase solar systems themselves; if this carries on it will inevitably have a huge knock on effect on the longevity of the FIT fund and consumers benefitting from it – and equally affect installers, like Govan, of small scale solar systems.”
It is unlikely that the Government review will halt the building of large scale solar developments, but will rather look to prevent such developments from being eligible for the FIT tariff.
Govan added: “By restricting the FIT to small scale installs, smaller businesses get a look in on a growing industry, householders are financially incentivised, and the UKs green targets remain on track, with existing builds being used as mini energy-generators.
“We are not against large scale solar developments; we think they provide a major contribution to our sustainable electricity generation targets. However, the FIT incentive was originally intended for the support of micro-generation technologies – the clue is in the name – so the Government’s review simply serves to put the incentive back on track.”
