The DTI has allocated £4m to support its Large
Scale Building Integrated PV Field Trial for Public Buildings -
part of its £20m PV solar programme. The funding will support 18 new
projects around the UK, in public buildings including Schools, galleries,
church halls and sport centres. The total capacity would be around 1.14
MWpeak.
The funding has been awarded following a bidding
process which opened last Nov. £3m was originally made available but
so many good quality schemes came forward that a further £1m has been
awarded for 7 more developments on top of the original 11.
Brian Wilson, Minister for Energy, said: "This
£4 m will put these very visible public projects in the front line
of our commitment to solar energy. It is a major boost for that brand
of renewables. This follows on from support given earlier this year
to develop an initial 400 UK based solar powered households. These
schemes will provide important learning experience before the UK embarks
on a much larger installation programme."
He added "The
Government has already set aside £20 million for the first phase of
that major programme, which will involve large numbers of houses and
public buildings. I want to see thousands of roofs covered by solar
panels every year. We have a lot of catching up to do if we are to
aspire to the same kind of programmes in Japan and Germany".
He’s certainly right e.g. Japan installs 100 every year.
It’s taken a while to get recognition of PV
in the UK. In Feb, 2001, the Enterprise, Skills and Innovation White
Paper announced that "We will embark on a major initiative with
industry and others to achieve a UK solar photovoltaic demonstration
programme in line with those four main competitors". Following
a favourable report from the joint Government-Industry PV Group, an
initial £1m was allocated to the First Phase of the Major PV Demonstration
Programme (MDP) by the DTI in March 2001. The Prime Minister also announced
that a share of his £100m Renewables Fund would also go to PV, depending
on the recommendations of the Cabinet Office review of renewable energy.
Their report was published in Nov. 2001, and a further £10m was allocated
to the MDP over the next 3 years. It is expected that the total £20m
budget, dispersed via an average 50% capital grant, will result in at
least 3,000 homes and 140 larger non-domestic buildings receiving solar
PV systems. But not everyone is convinced this will be enough. Writing
in the PRASEG journal Power House(15), Jeremy Leggett from Solar Century
has pointed out that Japan should have 370,000 solar roofs by 2005,
and Germany 14,000. By contrast the UK will only have at most 6,000.
Details of the18 new projects will be in Renew 139.
