Northern Ireland Boost for Solar
Solarcentury has warmly welcomed proposals from the Northern Ireland Office to require solar and other micro renewables in all new buildings from 2008.
The proposals published by Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, would require all new homes, commercial and public sector buildings to include on site renewable energy generation from April 2008. Read the official release.
Chief Executive Jeremy Leggett said, "Not for the first time, Peter Hain is demonstrating real political leadership on climate change issues. This practical proposal contrasts favourably with some of the timid commentary on low carbon development in the Government's recently published Energy Review. Where Northern Ireland leads, the UK must now surely follow."
Tipping the balance - Will the Government's 'reward scheme' really work?
The Energy Review highlighted the Government's recent decision to require electricity suppliers to "acquire" exported electricity from micro-generators. If suppliers don't come up with a scheme within 12 months, the Government could impose a solution. While payment for exported electricity is clearly welcome, how justified is the Government in claiming that this will help "tip the balance in the decision making process of an interested consumer?" In other words, will the incentive of being paid a few pence per unit for exported electricity be enough to persuade many more consumers to go out and buy a micro renewable installation?
The scheme proposed by Government will at best enable micro-generators to be paid typically 7 or 8p per unit for their exported electricity, but rates could be lower depending on supplier. To put that into perspective, probably all the output from David Cameron's soon to be installed micro wind turbine will be used as...
How disappointing? The Energy Review in detail...
The DTI press release and the Energy Review can be found at www.dti.gov.uk
This is a predictably disappointing paper, which fails to deliver the "urgent action" called for by the Secretary of State himself in his preface to the Review. It's worth remembering that the UK is in the Vauxhall conference when it comes to the European League table of renewable energy capacity. But instead of "urgent action," we have the promise of at least five further consultations and another White Paper for the end of the year. It's worth contrasting the Government's conclusion that new nuclear can make a "significant contribution" to the UK's energy requirements with the "content free" tone of much of the Renewables commentary in the Review. For reasons best known to the media, they all appear to have fallen for the Government spin that the "20%" renewables target b...