This is fantastic news and rewards owners who will now benefit from cheaper electric bills, money earnt from excess electricty being sold back to the energy companies and an annual lump sum meaning that a photovoltaic system can also be looked at as a tax free source of income as well as a money saver.

Another pleasant surprise was the unexpected announcement that a Thermal Hot Water Feed In Tariff is to follow in April 2011 although the amounts are yet to be confirmed.

Andy Groves of Solar Fusion urges anyone who is thinking about installing Photovoltaic solar panels in the next year to seriously consider it sooner “Anyone who has a PV installation completed before 1^st April 2010 will benefit from both the £2,500 grant and the enhanced feed in tariff – that’s double the benefit! We are expecting a large increase in photovoltaic installations in the first quarter of 2010 and remind customers that to qualify for both government incentives, the installation must be completed and commissioned by April. We recommend placing your order by the end of January to ensure that it is fitted by the April deadline as demand will create a huge list of waiting installations and would hate to see anyone who is interested in solar to miss out on this fantastic offer”

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The Tories have accused ministers of putting their “heads in the sand” and risking leaving millions of people without reliable energy.

Power rationing has not taken place in Britain since the 1970s, when a three-day week was brought in to preserve coal during a miners’ strike. The latest figures cast doubt over the Government’s pledge that renewable sources can make up for lower output from nuclear and coal.

They were slipped out in an appendix to the Low Carbon Transition Plan, which was launched in July. The main document set out a target for “clean” technology – such as wind, wave and solar – to supply 40% of the country’s power by 2020. But the extra section suggests that there will be a shortfall by 2017, when the “energy unserved” level is predicted to reach 3,000 megawatt hours per year.

That would be equivalent to the whole of the Nottingham area being without electricity for a day. By 2025 the situation is expected to worsen, with the shortfall hitting 7,000 megawatt hours per year. That would be the equivalent to an hour-long power cut for half of Britain over the course of a year.

Shadow energy secretary Greg Clark said: “Britain faces blackouts because the Government has put its head in the sand about Britain’s energy policy for a decade. Over the next 10 years we need to replace one third of our generating capacity but Labour has left it perilously late, and has been forced to admit they expect power cuts for the first time since the 1970s.”

The looming power shortage is caused by the scheduled closure by 2015 of nine oil and coal-fired power plants, as part of anti-pollution measures. Four existing nuclear power plants are also set to be shut. Mr Clark claimed the scale of the blackouts could be three times worse than the government predictions

Source: BBC News

Virgin Media News

“There are no immediate signals that would indicate a fall in retail prices for this winter,” Nick Horler, the chief executive officer of Scottish Power, said in a letter to the U.K. energy regulator Ofgem published today. There are “risks of an increase next year.”

Source: Bloomberg.com (hyperlink to http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aejoMrjc3bvk)

‘We Support Solar’ today launches its ‘Small Change, big Difference’ campaign, calling for a greater commitment from the Government to solar power in the UK. Backed by Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, the group remains confident that the right investment in solar energy in Britain will create lasting economic, social and environmental change. This follows modelling by the UK Photovoltaic Manufactures Association (UKPV) demonstrating that over 30,000 jobs could be created in solar manufacturing, design, installation and servicing by 2014 if the market price for solar electricity is set at a level to drive rapid expansion of the solar industry.

Backed by the British construction industry, an additional 10p incentive is all that is needed to create nearly 30,000 jobs in the solar power sector by 2014. The Federation of Master Builders (FMB), National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) and Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA) are calling for effective ‘Clean Energy Cashback’ payments for solar electricity, at least an additional 10p for every unit of solar electricity produced in the UK.  In late 2009, the level of payments to households, businesses and other organisations generating their own electricity from solar photovoltaics (PV) will be set by the Government under its new ‘Clean Energy Cashback’ scheme.  Adding just 10p to the Government’s proposed rates would drive demand for 400,000 new solar PV installations on homes by 2014, and thus create substantial employment opportunities in the construction industry.

The organisations wanting to change the proposed scheme represent almost 16,000 building companies. The scheme is under consultation as part of the Renewable Energy Strategy published in July 2009, for an April 2010 start. The ‘Small Change, big Difference’ campaign for at least a 10p top up comes from umbrella group ‘We Support Solar’.  This follows modelling by the UK Photovoltaic Manufactures Association (UKPV), outlined in the report ‘2020: A Vision for UK PV’, demonstrating that over 30,000 jobs could be created in solar manufacturing, design, installation and servicing by 2014 if the market price for solar electricity is set at a level to drive rapid expansion of the solar industry.

This support for solar power, set to provide an increasing percentage of the UK’s electricity by 2020, comes as the UK construction industry continues to witness a slowdown. The industry is expected to lose approximately 319,000 jobs between the industry’s employment peak in 2007 and its expected trough in 2010, according to Experian, consultants behind the FMB’s ‘State of Trade Survey’. The latest research from the FMB for the second quarter of 2009 shows that 49% of their members’ workloads continue to fall; with manufacturers all but stopping production. According to the ‘State of Trade Survey’, one of the worst affected areas appears to be Wales, a potential hub for solar manufacture and assembly in the UK.

The cash back scheme, as it is proposed, is a missed opportunity according to the campaign. The Government predicts that its proposed cashback scheme for solar PV will deliver around 0.5% of UK electricity demand by 2020, with much of this demand coming post 2014.  But  modelling from the UK PV Manufacturers Association suggests that adding just 10p to the starting tariff numbers from April 2010 would deliver well over six times the Government’s target for solar, and begin to come close to the more ambitious targets set by the rest of Europe.  Under the proposals, in 2010 the UK will continue to fall further behind countries such as Belgium and the Czech Republic, where the solar power installation rate is already ten times that of the UK.

Source: http://wesupportsolar.net/