However, according to Louise Bateman of Green wise, MPs voted yesterday to reject a Labour Party motion calling on the Government not to cut the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) for solar on December 12. Despite a concerted effort by Labour to mount a challenge to the Government’s decision to slash the FiT for solar with just a few weeks notice, the motion was defeated by 71 votes. A total of 297 MPs voted against the motion, with 226 voting in favour. It followed an opposition day debate to Government cuts spearheaded by Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary Caroline Flint.
Defending the Government’s decision, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne told MPs that to wait any longer to cut tariffs for solar would put at risk the entire FiT scheme.
"Each week’s delay leads to additional annual cost of £400 million," he said, adding that latest estimates suggested that if the Government did not act now, the subsidy could add £80 to energy bills by 2020.
"If we do not deal with this issue quickly we are not saving this industry, but writing the death warrant to this industry," Huhne said.
But Flint accused the Government of arrogance and incompetence and said the scale and speed of the cuts would "strangle" the solar industry at time when the economy was suffering.
"This is bad for jobs and growth," she said.
The Government announced on October 31 that solar schemes up to four kilowatt (kW) in size would be cut to 21 pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) from the current 43.3p/kWh. The changes would come into force from December 12.
Solar firms have warned that the sudden cuts will create a boom and bust with thousands of jobs and many companies put at risk. A number of legal actions have also been launched.
Huhne today denied the Government’s decision would lead to massive job losses. "We are not shutting down an industry," he said.
However, Huhne accepted that the decision could be bad news for some social housing schemes and he said the Government would consult on whether it was appropriate to have a separate tariff for such schemes.
He also said that the Government would look at making solar panels available to people through the Green Deal, as part of its comprehensive FiT review.
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