Amber Gets The Green Light At DECC
Prime Minister David Cameron is completing his cabinet reshuffle with a number of female ministers being handed big promotions- this includes the announcement of Amber Rudd as Energy and Climate Change Secretary
Welcoming the appointment of Amber Rudd MP as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Solarcentury CEO Frans van den Heuvel said, "Solarcentury very much welcomes this appointment. Amber Rudd clearly "gets" climate change and renewables and has been supportive of roof-top solar in particular. Her appointment suggests that government policy is not going to go lurching off to the climate sceptic right as many still fear. As we know however, while we still depend on Levy Control Framework Treasury capped funding for the Renewables Obligation, CfDs and FITs, the Treasury will continue to exert huge influence over renewables policy, including the parameters of the forthcoming FIT review, so we have to remain cautious."
Jeremy Leggett, Solarcentury Founder said, "I think Amber's experience to date will tend her to the view that the government has little option in energy but to pursue a green industrial revolution, however the climate argument pans out with the Conservative Right. The shale narrative is coming off the rails in the US, and the nuclear industry is fighting a lethal wound in France that means new UK nuclear is now impossible. There is nowhere left to go. And meanwhile, the clean energy revolution becomes more credible with every passing day in Silicon Valley and China."
Commenting on Amber Rudd's appointment as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, CEO of the Solar Trade Association Paul Barwell said:
"We very much welcome Amber Rudd's appointment as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and look forward to working with her to make sure solar reaches its full potential. We need stable policy support and strong leadership on solar "“ just one final push could get rooftop solar to zero subsidy by the time this Government leaves office."
"We also hope that Amber Rudd's experience in finance, her previous experience in the Treasury and her real understanding of the needs of new and growing businesses will mean that she can see the value that the UK's thousands of small and medium sized solar companies can bring."
"Rudd gets solar, and has often talked about the astonishing success of solar and how popular solar is, and has said in the past that she was watching solar's performance in the CfD auctions very closely."
"We will be writing to her today to ask for a meeting as soon as possible so that we can get to work and we urge her to read in full our Solar Independence Plan which sets out the steps required to take solar down the path to parity with fossil fuel generated electricity, and make sure the grid is better suited to distributed generation. We look forward to a good working relationship between government and the industry on our common goals."
