Solar Fusion is proud to be a member of the ‘We Support Solar’ campaign. It has been set up to petition the government regarding the level that the upcoming Feed In Tariff will be set at. Adding just 10p to the Government’s proposed rates would create substantial employment opportunities in the construction industry as well as making Solar Energy more accessible for the majority of commercial and residential clients.
‘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/
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