Government proposed subsidy cuts of up to 90% could stop the solar photovoltaic (Solar PV) industry dead in its tracks leading to hundreds of North East job losses. Currently there are more than 300 businesses active in rooftop solar in the North East, employing over 1,500 people, and the Solar Trade Association (STA), the industry body, estimates over 1,200 of these jobs at risk. Here in the North East solar PV is very popular, with 33,000 of the region’s 1.4m households connected – equating to an installed capacity of 101MW out of a UK solar PV total of 2800 MW.
When asked to comment on this, our own Sharon Lashley said a subsidy withdrawal will hinder the UK’s ability to achieve its climate change goal.
“There is no doubt at all that any proposed actions within the FiT consultation report will clearly have a very negative impact on the solar industry with many companies and jobs being put at risk. Such drastic cuts will certainly make everyone think differently about whether they can actually afford to install solar PV compromising their opportunity to access renewable energy in general. More importantly though is that this decision will certainly affect the UK’s ability to achieve their strategic aims in addressing climate change and carbon targets. It is not clear how many of these companies will actually survive these extremely challenging times or indeed whether any will be able to recover from this decision.”
In order to survive Ms Lashley believes the industry will have shift towards highlighting the benefits such as energy efficiency, energy savings and sustainability from the grid, adding
“In the solar sector we can only hope that the responses to the consultation document and the many petitions are considered within the decision making process. If and when the proposed changes are made we would hope that some consideration is given to some form of replacement subsidy perhaps the re-introduction of a one-off payment or support to ensure that renewable energy measures can continue to be installed, be affordable and accessible to both the domestic and the commercial sectors going forward.”
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