End to solar farm blight as subsidy scheme is scrapped (UK)

Telegraph UK ^ | May 13, 2014 | Emily Gosden

[opentalk]

Green energy subsidy scheme will be shut to large solar farms as ministers attempt to curb blight to countryside

Subsidies that have driven the spread of large solar farms across Britain are to be scrapped under plans to stop the panels blighting the countryside.

Energy companies that build solar farms currently qualify for generous consumer-funded subsidies through the so-called 'Renewable Obligation' (RO) scheme, and had expected to keep doing so until 2017

But the Department of Energy and Climate Change announced on Tuesday that it planned to shut the RO to new large solar farms two years early, from April next year.

The decision follows an admission by ministers that far more projects have been built than expected, leading to an rising subsidy bill for consumers and increasing local opposition

[opentalk]

[trisham]

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[FatherofFive]

Ms Greene said that, on current costs, solar farms "can't compete with onshore wind". The uncertainty in the auction process also made solar farm development too risky for the small businesses who typically build them.

And wind can't compete with fossil fuels.

[WayneS]

Yes, but what about windmills with solar panels on their blades?

;-)

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“Green energy subsidy scheme will be shut to large solar farms as ministers attempt to curb blight to countryside”

Next, end the blight caused by wind farms. It’s long past time that “green energy” projects were subjected to the same level of regulatory scrutiny as all other energy projects.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It’s long past time that “green energy” projects were subjected to the same level of regulatory scrutiny as all other energy projects.

Once they are required to perform environmental impact studies, they will say bye-bye.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I would like to see a comparison between (say) the oil sands, and wind turbines, on a “bird deaths per megawatt of energy produced” scale.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

No kidding.

[Organic Panic]

Solar in the UK? Good idea. Get full subsidies for theoretical 100% putout in a region you will get max 5%. I want in on this deal. Unless I am the taxpayer paying for it.

[FatherofFive]

Yes, but what about windmills with solar panels on their blades?

Great idea! Here is the next big thing from Government Motors-

[Winniesboy]

Solar in the UK? Good idea. Get full subsidies for theoretical 100% putout in a region you will get max 5%.

Better idea than you might think, if you still subscribe to the persistent myth (for which the novels of Charles Dickens have a lot to answer) that the sun never shines in the UK. Here in Devon in the South-west of England I get excellent value from the solar array on my roof. Subsidies aside, they make a big difference to my energy bills, and I get a very good tariff for the energy I feed back into the grid.

[palmer]

and I get a very good tariff for the energy I feed back into the grid.

Do you enjoy stealing from your neighbors? Here in Virginia we have a net metering law so I am forced to pay solar dilettantes 14 cents for power that is worth less than the 4 cents we pay for reliable wholesale power. But at least I don't have to pay extra.