Solar firms, hit by subsidy cuts

May 20, 2014

 

Solar panels
credits: keneinspiration.blogspot.com

Solar businesses are already being hit by cuts to large-scale solar subsidies, which the government is planning to bring in from next year – with warnings from the solar sector that it could derail an industry made up almost entirely of start-ups and new entrants.

One United Kingdom solar firm, which describes itself as a small to medium-sized enterprise and has been negotiating for more funding to grow its business, says it is now looking at scaling back its investments and cutting jobs due to the Government announcement that it wants to withdraw the main financial support mechanism for utility-scale solar within the year, as reported by greenwisebusiness.co.uk.

“We lost a year’s work back in 2011 when the Government did the U-turn on the Feed-in Tariffs, just when the company is starting to re-establish itself in the market, and looking for additional funding to staff up, we have now been hit with this uncertainty,” the company, which wishes to remain anonymous, said.

Meanwhile, smaller green, entrants in the energy market said their planned investments in solar were at risk following the government’s move to close the Renewables Obligation to all new five megawatt solar developments from next April.

The Founder and Chief Executive of Good Energy, Juliet Davenport said, “This decision will bring further instability and uncertainty to investors, and we will have to reconsider our portfolio of investments as a result,”

The Solar Trade Association, which represents UK solar companies, said the move to cut RO for utility-scale solar parks will barely impact large energy companies, but will “greatly increase risks” for SMEs and the UK solar industry’s competitiveness as whole.

“Big Six investment in solar farms is next to nothing – everything is new entrants, new suppliers, start-ups,” STA head of external affairs, Leonie Greene, told GreenWise. “This action risks derailing the sector’s competitiveness and risks derailing British firms in what is going to be very competitive global market.”