George Goudsmit, a purveyor of solar PV since 1979, claims that poor UK Government policy is endangering the industry and that many are ‘scared’ to take a chance on PV technology as a consequence.
Renewable energy hit an all time high this year for generation proportional all other types of energy available.
However, solar PV appears to be being held back.
The Renewable Energy Association’s (REA) analysis found that while solar PV deployment (MW capacity) increased by 6%, overall growth declined by 18% when compared to the same period in 2016.
REA said this drop is due to UK Government policy, which is restricting routes to market for solar PV technology.
Goudsmit, who runs the company AES Solar in Forres, Moray, says he’s been feeling the brunt of the UK Government’s less than enthusiastic solar PV policy for a long time.
“We’ve walked away from jobs. [The UK Government] are messing around with it all the time,” he said.
“The government is far too unpredictable. They haven’t got a good policy in place. So what that means is that everybody is scared – especially for the big farms. You have to apply and maybe in five years’ time you get the ‘privilege’ of spending half a million quid to get a grid connection.
“It’s that sort of uncertainty that’s always been a problem for the industry, the whole market.”
Given the REA’s recent data, it’s odd to note that deployment of solar PV systems is up but that overall growth of the generated energy from that technology is down.
Goudsmit said this is due to poor government policy and that the ‘gains are not that high anymore’ since the slow degradation of the feed-in tariff, the government scheme originally put in place to encourage the use of renewable energy systems.
Asked if he could recall a time when the solar PV industry had substantial UK Government backing, Goudsmit said: “I wouldn’t say so, no. [Solar] PV boomed of course in 2011 when the feed-in tariff came in, but they made an error there too and they realised within the first three months that they had made an error and they halved it.”
Unlike most other forms of renewable energy solar PV is prohibited from competing in the new – government endorsed – Contract for Difference (CfD) auctions.
Goudsmit has also had frustrating moments when attending Solar Trade Association meetings only to find that solar PV will not be receiving the same form of financial government backing enjoyed by other forms of renewable energy.
Yet he’s confident that solar PV can overcome these difficult obstacles.
He said: “Now that the grants are no longer there it’s up to the installers and specifiers like us to get the system in such a shape that it is affordable and it has some sort of payback. Very sadly most people buy renewables for money – an investment – rather than say to cut CO2 emissions.”
Leonie Greene, spokesperson for the Solar Trade Association, echoed Goudsmit’s concerns earlier this year.
She said: “Solar just wants to be able to compete with other technologies. It’s absolutely in the public interest that happens. The unfairness for us is that the industry is being expected to sit there for years and wait for the economics to stack up. Meanwhile other technologies are improving their supply chains, their methods, it’s putting us at a disadvantage and it’s not fair.”
Goudsmit has run into government policy concerning solar PV on may occasions. He also points to poor policy when it comes to fitting solar panels to homes and businesses.
He said: “This is all very much linked to the building industry and building regulations. It’s not very cleverly done. [The UK Government] specify how many panels you can have but they don’t specify where. So you get architects who don’t like the look of solar panels and you get people ending up with one and a half or two panels on the north face of their house. Which is pretty useless.”
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