UK Government to face questions and legal action of its handling of the FIT

Ove the last few days reports have been appearing that the UK government are to face a number of challenges to its decision to halve the FIT for PV installations which come online after 12th Dec 2011.

There are two select committees Environmental Audit Committee and Energy and Climate Change Committee which have called for evidence after launching an inquiry into the solar PV Feed-in Tariff and the management of the ongoing consultation to cut the cash subsidy in December. This is reported in a number of websites including http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/mps-call-for-evidence-of-ministers-handling-of-feedin-tariff-cuts-2773.aspx

There are also  two legal challenges to the decision to cut the tariff. One, brought by 'Friends of the Earth', is based on the fact that the governement is acting illegally in saying it will halve the tariff before its own consulation on the system is supposed to be completed on the 23rd December 2011. This story is covered by a large number of websites and is best searched for in your favourite search engine..

Seems that yet again some MP's have been caught by not thinking everything through before acting unilaterally.

New reduced FIT rates to arrive 5 months earlier than expected !

It is now in a couple of websites that I have seen that the Feed In Tariff rates will be reduced a lot sooner than originally anticipated.

Most people expected the change to occur in April for the new financial year. However, now the gov't is saying that the pot of money allocated for this scheme is running out quicker than planned.

The scheme was more popular than predicted with domestic installations exploding on the scene as people expected to cash in.

This means that you need to get any new installation signed off by the generating company before the 12th December 2011 to achieve the current rate of 43p/unit generated.

Any installation commissioned after that date (even if you have already paid a deposit with an installer) will drop to just 21p/unit generated.

Of course you will SAVE the same amount of money as you would under the old tariff, but the INCOME will now be less than half of what it was before.

The BBC News website has more on this at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15507750

There may still be other ways in which you can receive payments for using energy efficient or generating systems. Check out the Energy Saving Trusts website which has a database to check out your postcode - http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

FIT rates to be slashed for new systems after April 2012 ?

I have received an email today from 'TheMoneySavingExpert' website which carries a headline that the guaranteed FIT rates for new systems might be slashed by 50% after April 2012.

If you were considering installing a system soon then I'd get your skates on as you only get the rate after the system has been registered by the generating company.

You'd obviously save money due to not having to pay so much of the large energy prices which are also predicted, but you'd not be able to MAKE money.

The link to the MSE website about this can be found at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels

There was a warning that this might happen from the same MSE website back in Oct 2010 at the following URL - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/utilities/2010/10/spending-review-solar-feed-in-tariffs-safe-for-now

If more concrete evidence comes in it might be too late as the gov't is hardly likely to advertise sooner rather than later I would think.

New payment by EON for 2nd quarter 2011

This morning I have received another set of FIT from EON for generation between 25th Jan 2011 to 25th April 2011.

The paperwork contained two letters, one for the old tariff rate of 42.8p/kWh and the other for the new rate of 44.85p/kWh.

The first payment is for 488 kWh between 25th Jan 2011 to 30th Mar 2011 = (488 x 41.3) + (0.5 x 488 x 3) = £208.86

The second payment is for 188 kWh between 1st April 2011 to 25th April 2011 = (188 x 43.3) + (0.5 x 188 x 3) = £84.31

This makes a total of £293.17. 

New FIT rates

FIT rates have apparently gone up by 5%. Not had any official statement from EON yet but they should be applicable (for me) from at least 25th April 2011.

The rates change from
generation: 41.3p/kWh to 43.3p/kWh
export: 3p/kWh to 3.1p/kWh

With the agreed assumption of 50% export this gives me a new rate of 44.85p/kWh

Payback issues with suppliers...

I have had no problems with my payments from my supplier EON.

I recently submitted my most recent reading to them. They sent me a mail back the same day saying that my payment might be a little delayed, due to all the bank holidays we're currently having, for one reason or another. As I wasn't expecting anything for some time I was very pleased with this.

A friend of mine who happened to get his installation done just before me, IS having trouble getting his supplier to sort out his paperwork. This means he hasn't received a penny, doesn't even know if they've registered his installation and is now getting the ombudsman involved.

I will try to keep up to date with this on my blog. I wonder if there is a forum for this?? I will investigate.

In fact there seem to be quite a few. I will look at http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/ which claims to be the 'UK's most popular Renewable Energy Forum'.

New meter reading to the electricity company - Pay back in 12.3years

This morning I have submitted the latest reading to EON of 1057.3 kWh.

Since the installation went live on the 19th Oct 2010 this equates to 5.62kWh/day for 188days. The previous readings so far have been

11th Mar 2011 (589.7kWh) gave an average of 4.12kWh/day.
29th Jan 2011 (381.72kWh) gave an average of 3.74kWh/day.
2nd Dec 2010 (198kWh) gave an average of 4.71kWh/day.

If 5.62kWh is applied for the whole year this would equate to 2051.3kWh.

At the previous rate of 42.8p/kWh this gives me £877.95 of money paid to me.

As I initially paid approx £10800 for the system completely installed I will pay off the system in 12.3years at the current rate of return.

The return on investment is approx 8.13% per annum.

This does not take into account any money saved by using energy generated during the day, or any increase in the rates paid to me.

Update on the numbers so far.

Today's reading on the generation meter is 589.7kWh.

It is 143 days since installation on 19th October 2010.

The average so far is therefore 4.12kWh/day. This average has dropped a little from the review I did on the 2nd Dec 2010 which was at 4.71kWh/day.

At the current FIT rate of 42.8p/kWh this equates to £1.76/day which over the year is £644.22/year.

This does not take into account the amount of energy I use while I'm generating. I have taken to using my washing machine etc. during the day so that my usage is further reduced.

Further reviews will be done until I get a whole year in the bag.

UK announces Renewable Heat Incentive scheme today

As well as getting paid for generating electricity using solar panels and wind turbines the UK government is now going to include other systems such as solar water heating in its effort to reduce the amount of electricity required from fossil fuelled power stations.

The announcement was made today at the following link - http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/PN2011_023/PN2011_023.aspx

"The tariffs will be paid for 20 years to eligible technologies that have installed since 15th July 2009 with payments being made for each kWh of renewable heat which is produced."

"Once in the scheme the level of support an installation will receive is fixed and adjusted annually with inflation. However, as with feed in tariffs, we expect the levels of support available for new entrants to the RHI scheme will decrease over time as the costs of the equipment and installation reduce through economies of scale."

Review of the UK's FIT system earlier than originally expected

According to the website http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn11_010/pn11_010.aspx there will be a review of the FIT's by the end of 2011.

This is due to the fact that large companies are possibly soaking up all the money that was intended for the smaller scale producers such as myself.

There is a note near the bottom which might affect those people thinking about getting in on the act. If you're waiting for improvements to the solar panels etc and hoping to get in before the tariff's go down it might be worth taking this into account.

"The Government will not act retrospectively and any changes to generation tariffs implemented as a result of the review will only affect new entrants into the FITs scheme. Installations which are already accredited for FITs at the time will not be affected."