5. Solar
Worries
Fears have been raised that the government may back off from its
commitments to solar photovoltaics, following the publication
of the DTI’s Renewable Innovation Review (see Renew 150 and Reviews),
which concluded that solar PV would not be competitive by 2020 unless
there were ‘very substantial reductions in costs’, which
were likely to require a ‘breakthrough to next generation technology’.
It suggested that, as far as funding was concerned, the emphasis
could usefully be put on a “technology-blind”
programme of support for building integrated renewables and energy
efficiency technologies. So PV would only be one option, a possibility
that clearly worried the UK PV industry, which would prefer to continue
with the existing solar PV demonstration capital grants programme,
which Press reports have suggested may abandoned next year. Seb
Perry, a policy manager for the Renewable Power Association, commented
‘there is huge uncertainty as to what the government intends
to do in March 2005’ although Ray Noble, BP Solar’s UK sales
manager, said he was optimistic that the government will keep the
PV demonstration programme because its closure would be “political
dynamite”. Certainly MPs have expressed concern about the future
of the PV grants scheme. Before the summer recess, 120 MPs signed
an early day motion urging continuity of support for the PV industry.
In the event, the DTI temporarily headed off the issue with a new
round of funding (£8.5m) for small renewables including PV- see
Renew 153
