Government confirms closure of Feed-in Tariff
The Government has confirmed plans to remove the export tariff for solar power, which currently provides owners of PV panels revenue for excess energy that they generate. This will coincide with the closure of the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme.
Though a large proportion of respondents to the governmental consultation disagreed with the plans, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has decided that both the Feed-in Tariff subsidy scheme and the export tariff will close to new participants after March next 2019.
What was the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme?
The Feed-in Tariff scheme was introduced in April 2010 in order to incentivise the development of small-scale renewable generation from decentralised energy solutions such as solar photovoltaics (PV), wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion, and micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP). Generators were paid a fixed rate determined by the Government, which varied by technology and scale.
Payments to the small-scale generators were made quarterly by FiT-licensed suppliers and recovered from all consumers. A levelisation process also took place every quarter, as not all suppliers were required to offer FiTs and their exposure to the scheme varied.
The Government response
The response from the Government argues that the closure of the FiT scheme represents their “desire to move towards fairer, cost reflective pricing and the continued drive to minimise support costs on consumers”, adding that the current scheme does not support the vision set out in either the Industrial Strategy or the Clean Growth Strategy.
The scheme will close in full to new applications from 31 March 2019, subject to the time-limited extensions and grace period.
The Government has decided to provide a 12-month grace period for “Renewals Obligation Order Feed-In Tariff (ROO-FiT) scale” (all hydro and anaerobic digestion, solar PV, and wind with a declared net capacity over 50kW) installations that apply for preliminary accreditation on or before the cut-off date, are accepted into the cap, and then suffer grid and/or radar delay beyond their control. This means they are unable to accredit during their preliminary accreditation validity period.
It’s also been decided that projects in oversubscribed deployments caps at the close of the scheme will not be eligible for either generation or export tariff payments under the scheme, and so Ofgem will not grant them preliminary or full accreditation.
How will this impact you?
The results of these closures will mean that anyone that adds solar generation from April 2019 will not be paid for any excess power that is exported to the grid. These changes will not affect the circa 800,000 homes that have already solar panels fitted since the Feed-in Tariff scheme launched in 2010.
The Government is reportedly preparing to announce a market-based replacement to the export tariff early in the New Year, which would see new rules on how suppliers could purchase the excess power.
However, there will likely be a gap between the closure of the Tariff and the implementation of any new plans, meaning any new solar generators will be affected during this time.
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