Solar jobs fear in subsidy cut (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Representatives of industry hand letter to MP

3:00pm Friday 11th November 2011 in News

From left, Ed Gill and Dr Toby Ferenczi meet Duncan Hames MP

WITH growing fears over job losses in the solar industry, representatives visited the offices of Chippenham MP Duncan Hames last week to present him with a letter asking for help.

The Government’s proposed cuts of more than 50 per cent to the solar subsidy are threatening thousands of jobs across the country and hundreds in Chippenham alone, said Dr Toby Ferenczi, chief technology officer of solar company Engensa, which has its regional office at Bumpers Farm, Chippen-ham.

He said the cuts will have a “very real impact”, and threaten progress across the industry.

“The panels are initially expensive, around £10,000, but they ultimately bring about huge savings, which is why we are seeing a lot of families in fuel poverty becoming interested in installing them,” said Dr Ferenczi.

“Housing associations, who were just about to instal solar panels on their properties to help tenants with their energy bills, are starting to cancel. We are seeing huge repercussions already.”

The cuts have hit the feed-in tariff, the amount the householder gets paid by the Government for supplying electricity to the National Grid, which could bring the solar boom to an end.

Currently installations of up to four kilowatts attract a generation rate of 43.3p per kilowatt/hour (kWh), the unit of electricity generation you will find on your electricity bill, from the feed-in tariff. This will be reduced to 21p per kWh for all installations for solar panels installed on or after December 12.

Return on investment which has reached double figures for well positioned solar panels will be cut to 4.5 per cent for this size of installation.

The letter was presented to Mr Hames because he is Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Energy Minister Chris Huhne, and is an active supporter of the fledgling solar industry.

“The money spent on the nuclear industry could blow the amount of money on the feed-in tariff out of the water,” said Dr Ferenczi, a director and founder of Engensa.

“We are asking for change to the policy to ensure that we can survive.”

The solar industry, which fears redundancies, bankruptcies and contractual disputes, is also planning a day of action at Westminster on November 23.