As the UK solar market waits for the hammer to fall on the government’s latest cuts to subsidies for small scale installations, namely whether or not some form of export tariff will be retained, conversations are beginning to bubble around other ways for installations to progress.
If property owners are to lose effectively all direct financial incentives to install solar following the closure of the feed-in tariff regime and the as yet unconfirmed removal of export payments, by the government’s own admission returns are set to fall from 7-8% to just 2.5% – less than you would get from a five-year bond from a bank.
This is far from decided, with opposition to the government’s proposal coming in from far and wide, ranging from installers themselves to renewables trade bodies, the Mayor of London and even (albeit inadvertently) Leave voters approving of harmonisation with EU legislation.
However, while the government has shown some restraint in the past from enacting its plans for solar sabotage in full, attention is still being drawn to what else could be done to boost the number of installs of rooftop PV, not only for the good of occupants but also the environment.
Read more: Solar Power Portal