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The UK solar industry is calling for a quick decision on when a Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction will take place and whether large scale solar will be included because “there is a limit to how long the industry can wait.”
UK Solar’s chair Tess Sundelin said there was “tremendous concern” in the solar industry that the CfD auction will not take place “with a space and a budget for solar fairly shortly.”
The Department for Energy and Climate Change confirmed yesterday that there will not be a CfD auction in October, as set out by the previous government, and that there will not be any further details until the autumn.
Sundelin said: “The previous coalition had confirmed and indicated that there would be an auction in October this year. Obviously industry has been preparing for that and these are typically rather large projects with significant development spans that are sitting ready and have been invested in to have that route to market.”
She warned that the small and medium size of businesses in the solar industry means there is a limit on how long it can wait for an auction and that too small a budget in the CfD auction when it is eventually held would hamper solar’s ability to achieve grid parity.
Sundelin said: “That’s a real concern, that either its too late, or the scale of deployment that’s allowed by too small a budget will not be sufficient to drive down costs to where UK consumers deserve them to go, which is subsidy freedom.”
She was speaking at the launch of a report by the Renewable Energy Association (REA) and KPMG which says solar could achieve grid parity by the early 2020s with the right support.
Yesterday the government announced a total of £500m of support for biomass and an unconfirmed amount for small scale solar has been withdrawn, following the revelation that Decc overspent its £7.6 billion budget for the Levy Control Framework by £1.5 billion.
Earlier this week the REA called on the government to set out a clear policy framework and end their “piecemeal and ad-hoc” approach to announcing policy.
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