The shortage of a government-backed assured worth for promoting again surplus clear energy to the UK power grid is discouraging the set up of photo voltaic PV programs, in line with power consultancy Longevity Energy.
The absence of a government-backed mounted 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, mentioned Anthony Maguire, managing director at Longevity Energy.
He mentioned: “The largest impediment to the UK fulfilling its photo voltaic potential is the dearth of a secure and supportive coverage from Westminster. There isn’t a mounted export worth, 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 best long-term pricing certainty to unlock funding, which present Sensible Export Ensures (SEGs) set by power corporations 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 necessary photo voltaic panels. These will kind a part of the Authorities’s new Future Properties Normal, which is ready to publish this autumn.
Earlier this yr, in March, the Authorities introduced a £180M funding for putting in photo voltaic panels at tons of of colleges and hospitals throughout the UK, to be delivered through new state-owned power firm Nice British Vitality.
However in line with Maguire, the federal government is overlooking the numerous contribution that photo voltaic programs put in on the roofs of places of work, warehouses, factories, retail centres, and different industrial buildings akin to automotive parks might make to decreasing emissions and decarbonising the UK’s power system.
He added: “The enterprise case within the UK merely isn’t compelling sufficient proper now for corporations, landlords or tenants to spend money on rooftop photo voltaic programs.
“The UK lacks a correctly priced export tariff that will enable asset homeowners whose personal electrical energy consumption is modest to promote on the excess energy that they generate at a assured worth.
“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 federal government might put in place to encourage extra photo voltaic uptake amongst UK corporations and industrial property homeowners.
He mentioned: “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 programs constructed by non-public builders or power suppliers that provide energy to offsite residential clients and companies alike on a subscription foundation.
“One other measure for the UK to undertake can be a regulatory rooftop utilization mandate much like the laws authorised 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 optionally available to turning into important.”
