Solar Loses Out In Complex Auction Scheme
Competitive auctions have led to contracts being offered to 27 renewable electricity projects.
The auctions have led to over £315 million of new contracts being offered to five renewable technologies, some more established like onshore wind and solar, and also less established technologies such as offshore wind, which is seeing its costs fall as the industry grows.
The contracts being offered include two offshore wind farms, which could deliver over 1.1GW of new capacity, 15 onshore wind projects and 5 solar projects. In total, over 2 GW of new capacity could be built, costing £110 million per year less than it would have without competition.
Energy & Climate Change Secretary, Ed Davey said: "This world leading auction has delivered contracts for renewables projects right across the UK. "These projects could power 1.4 million homes, create thousands of green jobs and give a massive boost to home-grown energy while reducing our reliance on volatile foreign markets.
Contracts have been offered to a range of companies, including small developers and independent generators, including projects in England, Scotland and Wales.
But not everyone thinks its good news
The Solar Trade Association claimed the system favours big players and other technologies.
Chief executive Paul Barwell said: "Unfortunately, this result is as disappointing as we predicted. The soon-to-be-cheapest and most popular renewable, solar power, has lost out in a complex auction scheme that favours big players and genuinely established technologies.
"Is a policy that trips up the UK's emerging solar industry really a successful policy? We don't think so. It is essential that changes are made to the next round of auctions in October to ensure that smaller UK solar companies can have the confidence to enter."
Solar, onshore wind, landfill gas and hydro were competing for contracts within the £50m plus 15m for later projects budget available for "˜established' technologies. Technologies categorized as "˜less mature', like offshore wind, competed in a separate auction.
Barwell added: "It is likely that very few solar companies even submitted a bid for a contract. The problem is that it was just far too much of a risk for a small or medium-sized solar company to even put in a bid.
"The system was a bit like asking first time buyers to put down on deposit on a house, without knowing whether they were going to be able to buy the house at the end of the process "“ and with the risk of losing their deposit."
Many solar developer are very disappointed but are looking to the next government to apply a more "solar" sensible budget to the next allocation round this coming October .
