Decision casts a shadow on ‘sun farms’

Ministers have decided they are happy with the boom in solar panels on household roofs which was sparked off by the April 2010 Feed-in Tariff for the National Grid, but they cannot afford to subsidise a lot of larger projects too.

When they saw what the last Labour government’s scheme was likely to cost, they ordered a review which came up with recommendations to cut funding for the larger solar schemes and gave only a token response to the argument for switching some of the funding to digesters.

The National Farmers Union objected on both counts.

But now a review of the review has confirmed the changes will go ahead as previously proposed. The confirmation was in the Review of Waste Policy and Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan for England, published on Tuesday.

August 1 is the cut-off date for approvals under the old tariff.

The NFU expressed “deep disappointment”. Its renewable energy specialist, Jonathan Scurlock, said: “The NFU is astonished that DECC has not responded more positively to the 500-plus consultation responses they received from ourselves and a wide range of stakeholders in the emerging solar photovoltaic market.

“Our hopes of increasing the uptake of farm-scale anaerobic digestion have also been dashed by these penny-pinching plans.”

The NFU is particularly disappointed at the absence of transitional arrangements for people who have already committed to solar projects but will not meet the August 1 deadline imposed by the Department for Energy & Climate Change. It said a group of developers had a date in July to argue for judicial review of the decision.

CLA president William Worsley said: “This plan just rehashes existing commitments with no new vision.”