Government action 'damaging' green power industries

5.00.00am GMT Sun 23rd Oct 2005

Solar panels provide hot water even in winter for Robin Lawrence's famiy

Problems with a government grant programme are damaging the UK's renewable power industry. Two schemes providing financial support for small green energy schemes are ending this year, and the replacement programmes have yet to materialise.

The Clear Skies and Major Photovoltaics (PV) Demonstration programmes will authorise their final grants before the end of the year.

Since 2002, they have disbursed about £43m in grants towards small-scale solar PV projects, solar hot-water systems, micro-wind installations, wood stoves and ground-based heat-pumps, either at the level of individual households or small communities.

Clear Skies and PV Demonstration are due to be replaced by a Low Carbon Buildings (LCB) programme; but this will not be in place before April at the earliest, and will not issue its first grants until the middle of next year.

This will create a hiatus of at least seven months in which no grants can be obtained. The DTI is trying to direct funds away from retro-fitting old houses, seeking to concentrate instead on newly built developments.

"It's a great mistake to concentrate on new build," commented Robin Lawrence, Lib Dem candidate in Wolverhampton's Park Ward. "My house is over 100 years old and I have had solar panels installed very successfully"

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the uptake of some technologies, especially solar PV, with the price falling by around 7% per year.

But solar still produces less than 1% of Britain's electricity, at a time when greenhouse gas emissions are rising to such an extent that for the first time since Labour came to power, the country is in danger of missing its Kyoto Protocol target.