Alistair McGowan, impressionist, environmentalist and solar power advocate, today joined the ‘We Support Solar’ campaign in calling on the UK Government to commit to solar power as part of the country’s renewable energy future. Earlier this week it was reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that Renewable energy, particularly solar, could account for almost 80% of the world’s energy supply within four decades, but only if governments pursue the policies needed to promote green power. He joined children at Hinchley Wood School in Surrey, a top ‘Green Flag’ school, with one of the countries largest solar pv installations, to congratulate them on leading the way for other schools and stress the importance of using large roofs such as sports halls to generate much needed clean power.

Impressionist Alistair McGowan joins "We Support Solar" Photo: Andy Bodycombe

Generating electricity at home with solar power, McGowan, and campaign group ‘We Support Solar’, argue the Government is failing to commit to the level of solar power needed in the UK by proposing to reduce the ‘Feed-in tariff’, payment for clean electricity, for solar on mid to large roofs.

We Support Solar is concerned that the Government is proposing to slash ‘Feed-in tariffs’ for solar installations on schools and community buildings. They want an increase in ambition for solar power in the UK, matching other big EU economies. McGowan and We Support Solar are calling on the Government to encourage schools and communities to keep installing solar pv.

Alistair McGowan with pupils from solar powered Hinchley Wood School, Surrey.

In an impassioned and entertaining speech at Hinchley Wood’s assembly McGowan said: “If we all embraced exciting solar PV technology, as you have done, we could create a world in which old, wasteful, dirty sources of energy creation are almost totally redundant. But this country isn’t yet embracing solar power because of changes in the system which means that so-called ‘large-scale’ projects, such as yours, are not being encouraged. Schools and hospitals are great places for solar: they can reduce bills, freeing up funds for local authorities to use elsewhere, and even raise an income for themselves - while benefitting the health and future of the world. To make a real difference in the fight against climate change, the 29,000 school buildings across the country should be given another job to do - like yours.”

Steve Poole Headteacher at Hinchley Wood School said: “Hinchley Wood aims to be a sustainable school and renewable energy, using solar panels, is one of the reasons why we achieved Green Flag status. It is the responsible thing to do, saves us considerable money and sets an example for the whole school community. School buildings are an ideal location for solar panels and we think every school should consider this option; particularly as it is no longer necessary to finance it yourself with organisations like Solarcentury and Triodos Bank working together. What else was our sports hall roof going to be used for? Hinchley Wood supports solar, and believes schools should have solar power just like ours – using as much roof space as is practicable.”

Making an impression at Hinchley Wood School assembly. Photo: Andy Bodycombe

Alistair McGowan added: “I’m backing ‘We Support Solar’ because we need solar power in this country.  I generate my electricity with solar so I know its fantastic stuff. If we had solar on all of our south facing roofs we could meet a third of our electricity needs. No wonder it’s the fastest growing electricity generating technology in the world. But the UK Government threatens to turn it into an endangered species because it refuses to think big on solar for our buildings and communities, we should use large roof spaces for solar before we live to regret restricting solar power to small roofs. Solar’s no joke, its time for the Government to think big, raise its solar ambition and keep a strong Feed-in tariff.”

Hinchley Wood School, in Surrey, is a “Green Flag” ambassador school that has achieved a 20% reduction in energy use over two years and has just installed their second solar power system. Their new 67kWp solar power system will generate 58,000 kWh of electricity a year; saving the school £4,500 in electricity bills every year. They will save 29 tonnes of C02 emissions each year from the new system.

The school went solar thanks to a new partnership between Solarcentury’s ‘Solar4Schools’ programme and Triodos Bank. The ethical bank owns the solar photovoltaics, with the school paying a fraction of the cost of the system, £2,500 as opposed to £186,000, to benefit from free electricity during the day. This is made possible by a guaranteed price for renewably generated electricity, under the Government’s ‘Feed-in tariff’ scheme. The Government is currently proposing that incentives for solar are restricted to 50kWp and below, limiting the role of large roofs in generating clean electricity.

Jeremy Leggett, Executive Chairman, Solarcentury said:

“Since the CSR, I’ve had numerous conversations with Ministers during which I have been assured that any urgent review of feed-in tariffs would be carried out after publication of a proper trigger and would in any case exclude built-environment PV. The Government has not only betrayed those assurances, but today proposes feed-in tariff rates that would ensure the UK PV industry stalls. In doing this they make a mockery of their own supposed core objectives: local empowerment within a Big Society, massive job creation to countervail austerity-related job losses via a green industrial revolution, desire to be the greenest government ever, and so on.”

He added:

“The total cost of the PV tariff to date has been less than a penny per month on domestic bills and the total FIT spend is running way below the Government’s projections. Meanwhile thousands of new green jobs of the type the Prime Minister has told me his Government wants to promote have been created and the Treasury’s coffers are being filled with the increased tax and NI take from what was a growing and confident sector. All of that has been debilitated at a stroke. No renewables company or investor can easily be able to trust this Government again after this u-turn by Ministers who were so quick in opposition to call for a more ambitious feed-in tariff, and so ready with empty promises in the early months of government. Moreover, they do all this at the time of both the Fukishima nuclear disaster and profound instability in the Middle East. The inevitable meltdown for the UK nuclear renaissance and the potential meltdown of affordable oil supply mean that the UK needs domestic renewable energy industries more than ever today. In setting us back so, at such a time, I believe the government is guilty of a betrayal of national security.”

Solar photovoltaic (PV) industry leaders and the We Support Solar campaign today warned that up to 30,000 green jobs in the UK’s growing solar sector were under threat from Government feed-in tariff cuts. The industry has witnessed significant growth since the introduction of the Feed-in tariffs, now under review.

Their warning came the day after Energy Minister Greg Barker MP confirmed in the House of Commons that employment in UK solar PV companies had already grown by more than 10,000 staff in the year since the launch of the feed-in tariffs in April 2010. Endorsing employment numbers collated by the Renewable Energy Association, Barker confirmed that 17,000 staff were expected to be employed in the sector by “Spring 2011″ and 30,000 by January 2012, a ten-fold increase on employment levels before the feed-in tariff.

Howard Johns, Chairman of The Solar Trade Association (STA) said; “It is utterly amazing that only 10 months into this hugely popular and successful scheme the Ministers are putting employment in the sector at risk. They seem not to grasp the fact that the two FIT reviews jeopardize these new jobs.”

Jeremy Leggett, Executive Chairman, Solarcentury said: “It truly beggars belief that a Government elected on a promise of being the “greenest ever” should be rushing to cut the solar PV tariff and kill off one of its very few employment success stories. Their Sir Humphreyesque attempts to justify the shock decision of 7th February would be amusing, were the consequences for the sector in terms of jobs and value to the UK economy not so serious.”

Ray Noble, Renewable Energy Association, said: “Solar in the UK - the biggest April Fool’s day joke ever - the FIT started on April 1st, Industry responded, delivered a significant sustainable market with substantial new jobs only for Government to interfere and kill it off.”

Stop this, and sign our letter to Secretary of State Chris Huhne MP.

Secretary of State Chris Huhne MP is questioned about his decision to review Feed-in tariffs for solar above 50kWp. He claims there is a ‘gold rush’ in solar in the UK, despite the market being a thousanth of the size of Germanys. He also demonstrates a deep lack of understanding of size, saying 50kWp (half the size of the schools solar system covered by Channel 4 below) is “massive” pv, the size of 1500 small systems. The correct number is 20.

Hillier on Huhne’s gaffe

Shadow Energy Secretary Meg Hillier MP drew attention to Chris Huhne’s solar PV 50 kW gaffe in the Commons earlier today. Her intervention was as follows:

Meg Hillier (Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Lab/Co-op): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On Channel 4 news yesterday evening, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change described 50 kW as “an enormous amount of power. That’s the equivalent of 1,500 domestic roofs.” That is just plain wrong, and either this is startling incompetence by the Government or they have based their review of solar feed-in tariffs on a completely false premise. The review is already causing uncertainty; these comments make it worse. I wonder, Mr Speaker, whether you can use your good offices to ensure that the Secretary of State clarifies the Government’s position to this House and to the public as quickly as possible.

Mr Speaker: As the hon. Lady knows—and as far as I am concerned, this is very fortunate—the content of ministerial statements or answers is not a matter for the Chair. If a Minister has made an incorrect statement, there is a procedure for setting the record straight, and that will be well known to all members of the Treasury Bench. Meanwhile, the hon. Lady has put her concerns and her interpretation of the facts very clearly on the record, and that statement and interpretation will have been heard by Ministers.

The Channel 4 News team visit Matthew Arnold School in Oxford, where the Feed-in tariff revenue from their 100kWp system is going towards the development of local low carbon initiatives such as insulation and deployment of other energy efficiency measures for homes.

It is these size systems that the Government is effectively putting on hold with the review of the Feed-in tariff for systems above 50kWp.

Sam Clarke, from Low Carbon Oxford North, explains why this is a blow for low carbon community initiatives.

Shadow Energy Minister Huw Irranca-Davies MP used a point of order in the Commons yesterday to draw attention to the increasingly shambolic nature of the Government’s feed-in tariff review. The Shadow Minister highlighted the contradictory timelines for the review set out in the Commons written statement of 7th February and in the draft carbon plan signed off by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, pointing out that many thousands of jobs were dependent on feed-in tariff certainty and clarity from the Government. The full intervention is printed below.

Points of Order

3.33 pm
Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Today the Government have published their draft carbon plan, which we all welcome. There is a commitment in the plan to reviewing feed-in tariffs for microgeneration in 2012-13, as originally set out by the previous Government. However, in just the past few weeks the Government have announced that a fast-track review of those solar feed-in tariffs is to take place by this July. Thousands of jobs in this country are dependent on the certainty and clarity of knowing what will happen with the feed-in tariff review and when it will happen. Today’s document is co-signed not only by the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, but by the deputy leader of the coalition and the Prime Minister himself. Have you had a request, Mr Speaker, for any Government spokesman or the Prime Minister to come and clarify whether the review will take place now or in 2012-13, so that we can end the uncertainty that is jeopardising thousands upon thousands of jobs?

Mr Speaker: The short answer to the question is that sadly I have not. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me notice of his intention to raise this matter; however, it does not constitute a point of order on which I can rule. There will be—and I think he knows there will be—other opportunities to pursue the matter in other ways, and I have a suspicion that he will use them.

Ian Lucas MP, Shadow Business Minister whose Wrexham constituency includes Sharp’s European PV manufacturing headquarters employing over 1,000 staff has said:

“I was extremely concerned to hear about proposals from the Government to limit the size of installations covered by the Feed-in Tariff. This could be devastating for the industry. Sharp’s Head of International Sales, Andrew Lee, has told me that the Government’s proposals would be “disastrous for the industry at a time when it has just started to gain momentum and we have seen real investment and job creation.”

Mr Lucas added, “Renewable energy companies are investing in the UK and working to develop a highly-skilled workforce. However, the Government’s proposals run the risk of halting the solar energy industry just at the point it is beginning to grow.”

Thanks to www.edie.net

We call on Huhne to stop solar becoming an ‘endangered species’ in the UK.

We Support Solar has launched a new campaign calling for the Government to raise its solar ambitions. “Save our solar” depicts solar as an endangered species, to raise awareness of  the limited support for solar power in Government and the damage caused by Chris Huhne’s shock feed-in tariff review announcement on 7th February.  We Support Solar emphasises that the technology is the fastest growing electricity generating technology in the world, with the UK far behind the ambitions of comparable economies. The group, with thousands of supporters across the UK, illustrates solar as a leatherback turtle with solar photovoltaic shell.

Shadow Energy Minister Huw Irranca Davies supporting 'Save our Solar' with the UK Solar industry at Ecobuild

Prompted by the Governments shock immediate review of solar photovoltaic Feed-in tariffs for business and community scale solar; the campaign calls for three things from

Secretary of State Chris Huhne MP:

- Raise the UK’s solar ambitions to match those of other big EU economies

- Leave the solar Feed-in tariff alone for households and communities until April 2012

- Back community owned renewables, as the Coalition promised.

We Support solar has collected over 300 signatories on its current letter to Chris Huhne MP, including support from the Federation of Master Builders, the Micropower Council, NFU, Friends of the Earth and the National Federation of Roofing Contractors.   In addition, the campaign has received backing from politicians including Huw Irranca-Davies MP, Shadow Energy Minister, Caroline Lucas MP, leader of the Green Party; and John Hemming MP, Chairman All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas.

Huw Irranca-Davies MP stresses the importance of solar in the UK Economy

Huw Irranca-Davies MP, Shadow Energy Minister said: “The “We Support Solar” Campaign shows the widespread concern and anger over Chris Huhne’s rash decision to bring forward an early review of the feed-in tariffs.  The government must take notice, and act now to protect the recent growth in green solar jobs, restore investor certainty, and deliver solar energy benefits for individual householders, community schemes and our overall carbon reduction commitments.”

Caroline Lucas MP, Leader of the Green Party said: “With its ill-advised plan to review solar feed-in tariffs, the Government is creating uncertainty in one of the few industries to have generated thousands of much-needed new green jobs. The We Support Solar campaign is crucial to putting pressure on the Government to show more clarity and consistency in its approach to the renewables sector - and give solar energy the support it needs to thrive.”

Brian Berry Director of External Affairs at the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) said:

“The Federation of Master Builders backs ‘We Support Solar’, because solar  has the potential to create much needed jobs in the building industry. As many as 100,000 so called ‘green collar’ solar jobs could be created by a Feed In Tariff encompassed in a truly green strategy. This would benefit both building owners by helping to create more energy efficient  buildings and builders by the creation of much needed new jobs.  If the Government is really serious about its commitment to being the ‘greenest ever’ then it needs to raise the  its solar ambitions to at least match those of other major EU countries.”

Ray Horwood CBE, Chairman, National Federation of Roofing Contractors said: “The National Federation of Roofing Contractors fully supports the need raise the UK’s solar ambitions. The time has come for roofs to be active parts of a building to provide a viable solution to support a generation of new jobs for roofers who are eager to become involved in the emerging green economy. A commitment to the feed-in tariff for solar will help tackle the triple challenge of credit, energy and climate.”

Support the campaign and sign our letter to Energy Minister, Chris Huhne MP.

Solar power in the UK faces an uncertain future as the Government has announced a review of the Feed-in tariff.  The issue of unceratinty for communities and businesses is articulated perfectly by: Jonathan Porritt, The Forum for The Future , Caroline Lucas, Leader of the Green Party and Shadow Energy Minister, Huw Irranca Davies in The Guardian.

Join hundereds of others and help ‘Save our solar’ sign our letter to Secretary of State Chris Huhne.

“The “We Support Solar” Campaign shows the widespread concern and anger over Chris Huhne’s rash decision to bring forward an early review of the FITs.  The government must take notice, and act now to protect the recent growth in green solar jobs, restore investor certainty, and deliver solar energy benefits for individual householders, community schemes and our overall carbon reduction commitments .”
Huw Irranca-Davies, Shadow Energy Minister.