A letter to Downing Street from a wide coalition of both big and small businesses including household names such as IKEA has asked the prime minister to back the UK solar industry. Signatories include Triodos Bank, Ecotricity, KYOCERA, Interface, Good Energy and the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technology at Loughborough University.
The letter was signed by a host of small businesses involved in solar, showing how the industry is made up of over 2,000 small and medium sized businesses who support 16,000 jobs.
The letter comes following DECC’s consultation on proposed changes to support for solar power and highlights the critical importance of commercial and industrial roofs, as well as solar farms, in delivering low-cost solar.
Commenting on the letter, Solar Trade Association chief executive Paul Barwell said: “Solar is a home-grown solution to Britain’s energy crisis. If the government provides a stable policy environment solar will soon be subsidy free. But the government is now proposing to tilt the playing field against large-scale solar, while not taking sufficient action to unlock commercial rooftop solar – that is unacceptable.
“We urge DECC not to close the Renewables Obligation to large-scale solar and to rethink proposals on Feed in Tariffs to allow a meaningful rooftop market which their own Solar PV Strategy recognises has such tremendous potential.
“The level of policy uncertainty risks derailing the extraordinary progress the large-scale industry has made in delivering jobs and reducing technology costs in the last few years. It is also putting the UK’s position in the booming global solar market at risk.
“So serious are the implications of these consultations for the British solar industry that we are asking the prime minister to intervene. We only need one more push, one more period of policy stability to be able to compete with fossil fuels without support. That is the global race the PM needs to win for the UK economy and the climate.”
To read the letter in full please click here