Cutting solar subsidies a ‘threat to storage’, Good Energy warns

Subsidy cuts for small-scale solar will stifle deployment of energy storage, independent supplier Good Energy has warned.

Head of innovation Will Vooght told Utility Week that, as an emerging part of the market, storage is likely to “follow a similar trajectory” to solar. “Storage has the potential to be a game-changing piece of tech – cutting solar subsidy is a threat to that.”

“As we’ve seen from solar power, increased levels of deployment has helped drive down the cost of the technology, making it a fraction of the price it was just a few years ago,” he said. “While deployment numbers are currently low, we are already seeing costs beginning to drop.”

Following announcements this week that the government would withdraw support for small-scale solar because of a budget overspend, Good Energy chief executive Juliet Davenport said the firm was “worried about the knock-on effect” this could have on innovation in battery storage.

“Stifling support could bring an end to a truly game-changing technology which would enable households to store their own electricity,” she added.

Managing director of British tech start-up Powervault, Joe Warren, agreed. He told Utility Week: “While PV feed-in tariffs are not the only way to support introduction of battery storage technology, they are one of a number of measures which help to level the playing field for new low-carbon technologies.”

Battery storage is rapidly emerging as a new ‘sector’ within the energy space, with Powervault announcing in mid-June that it had raised £700,000 through investment crowdfunding and will install 50,000 home energy storage systems in the UK by 2020. 

Energy storage firm Moixa Energy then announced earlier this month that it will raise £875,000 via crowdfunding to install its storage systems at one million sites by 2020.

Read Utility Week’s analysis on energy storage here.