Owners of self-built renewable energy systems will be excluded from Feed in Tariff

Received from Brian Faux – invitation to sign a petition:

Please sign and pass this on

The Department of Energy and Climate Change intends to reward generators of renewable energy – Solar, Wind, Hydro etc – with a guaranteed price for the electricity they produce: the Feed In Tariff. This will come into effect in April 2010.

However the regulations will be such that that owners of self-built renewable energy systems will be excluded from these rewards even though these are the very people who pioneered home produced electricity. To assure a fair reward for these green pioneers, please sign the petition to 10 Downing St.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/GreenPioneers/

‘Usually provided there are 500 signatures or more, it will be passed to officials who work for the Prime Minister in Downing Street, or sent to the relevant Government department for a response.’

This 20-foot waterwheel generates 5.5kw – enough electricity to power two
houses 24 hours a day.

Under the proposed regulations it will be ineligible for the Feed In Tariff.
http://s990.photobucket.com/albums/af26/brianfaux/Waterwheel/

“One of the proposed conditions of the recently announced Feed In Tariffs for renewable energy is that only projects which have Microgeneration Certification Scheme approved installers and equipment will qualify for FIT`s. Individuals that have pioneered the use of renewable resources by building their own Solar,Hydro and Wind installations will not be able to claim the reward promised by the FIT`s. This is a kick in the teeth for those who have led the way to a greener future at their own expense.”

To add a little Kafka to the situation: although the DECC is insisting on MCS certification for systems installed between July 2009 and April 2010 there are, for hydropower, no existing MCS certified installers and no certified machinery. There is in fact no protocol yet agreed by the MCS for the testing of either products or installers.

About hugh

I live off-grid in NW Scotland and have spent my life playing with wind turbines. I also love small hydros. Hands on renewable energy is my thing and I like to learn and to share my experiences.
This entry was posted in UK small wind scene. Bookmark the permalink.

5 Responses to Owners of self-built renewable energy systems will be excluded from Feed in Tariff

  1. pete says:

    Sorry, but I really can’t understand your beef here. Dubious as it may be, the feed-in tariff system is supposed to be a way of kick-starting a micro-generation industry into being. That’s why the tariff is up to three times the retail cost of power from the grid. It’s all very admirable designing & building your own generators but you can’t expect to benefit from a scheme that you’re effectively undermining by not buying the commercial equipment it’s intended to subsidise.
    Perhaps the question you ought to be asking is why the electricity consumer is expected to suffer higher bills to subsidise an industry that’s not viable in it’s own right. Set the feed-in tariff at the same rate as supplied electricity & there’d be a good argument for it to be paid to all micro-generators so encouraging individual ingenuity like yours.

  2. Phillip Watt says:

    Is the campaign to include everyone on the Fits scheme to be paid the same still underway,this Govnt.surley are a ConDem Government.They can’t even keep their word on Fits.Please let me Know.Cheers Phillip Watt

  3. Leslie Bryan says:

    All this brings back memory of late 1970's when Uk/EU wanted to bring in type approval laws on Uk car/Mc's so you as individual are not allowed to make Kit cars Etc. Then, as a Maker of Special MC we got the uk Gove to opt out of EU Type approval regs. Letters to MP's, about job losses, skill loss, trade loss, tax loss etc, articles to Press TV etc etc, and it worked.

  4. ecobling says:

    How naive Brian! To think you or anyone actually believed the Feed In Tariff was really meant to reward people like you. It's main purpose, apart from hyping this dodgy government's eco-credentials, is to reward the big PV players like Sharp, Kyocera, BP…you know they need your tax dollars!

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