Lucas roasts Shapps’ resistance to new homes solar

Arguments by Grant Shapps that making solar panels mandatory on new development will stymie housing delivery and curb innovation do not “bear scrutiny”, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has said.

During a Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons this week, the Greens’ sole MP tore into the energy security secretary’s case for not forcing developers to install solar PV panels as part of the Future Homes Standard (FHS) revision of building regulations.

He had told a meeting of the Commons environment audit committee last week that this step could cause a “fundamental slowdown” in the delivery of new housing by leaving it vulnerable to shortages in availability of the critical minerals that the panels rely on, resulting in the construction of significantly fewer homes than the government’s stated 300,000 per annum target. Shapps also said that making solar mandatory would stifle innovation.

Opening the debate, which she sponsored, Lucas said the secretary of state’s argument about housing delivery “does not really bear scrutiny”.

Evidence presented to the committee demonstrated that with “the right political will it was perfectly possible to source materials outside China, where the current problems lie”, she said, adding that alternatives exist to silicon, such as perovskite, which can be sourced and supplied cheaply from outside conflict zones.

The former Green leader also said Shapps’ argument on innovation equally failed to bear up to scrutiny, adding that greater certainty on the roll out of rooftop solar would in itself spur new approaches to the technology.

She said the current pace of consumer installations needs to double in order to meet the target of 70GW of solar power by 2035, which is set out in the government’s energy security strategy.

“Equipping every new home with the capacity to harvest the sun’s abundant energy will drive the next stage of solar’s growth.

“It is a win-win policy, lowering bills and those all-important carbon emissions, while massively boosting our thriving renewables sector, improving energy security, creating hundreds of thousands of good-quality jobs and helping to level up, all at no cost to the taxpayer.”

Responding, energy minister Graham Stuart said the government will explore how to develop on-site renewable electricity generation, such as rooftop solar, when it publishes its next consultation on the FHS later this year.

Adding that he is “all ears” to ideas on how to spur the growth of rooftop solar, Stuart said: “Whatever our record to date, we want and need to go faster.”