Labour has today accused the government of undermining investment in UK renewables, warning the failure to provide more clarity on the future of levy-backed clean energy projects represents a “mighty axe blow at the fundamentals of the next phase of renewable deployment”. Writing for BusinessGreen, Labour’s shadow climate change minister Alan Whitehead warned the new Control for Low Carbon Levies – which was announced as a replacement for the Levy Control Framework (LCF) clean power support mechanism in last week’s Budget – could damage the investment climate for mature renewables, such as onshore wind and solar; earlier stage renewables, such as marine power; new nuclear projects; and energy efficiency programmes.
Business Green 27th Nov 2017 read more »
Labour’s Alan Whitehead warns the government’s latest Budget could force large parts of the UK renewables industry to shut down. The Levy Control Framework runs out in 2020 – so what is to come next? How will further renewable power roll outs be supported up to 2025? We’ve been promised an announcement in the budget for some time – and indeed, the government has effectively ‘borrowed’ the £700m it announced for support of offshore wind (£200m of which has already gone from auctions on offshore schemes deliverable in 2021-22) from the putative forward framework up to 2025. Moreover, depending what the Chancellor means by ‘levies’ there is the possibility that plans to extend the Energy Company Obligation (funded by a levy) to tackle energy efficiency in buildings as set out in the government’s Clean Growth Strategy will not happen either. Altogether then, a mighty axe blow at the fundamentals of the next phase of renewable deployment. It looks to me that a substantial part of the UK’s renewable industry will have to shut down, unless ways to introduce technologies wholly free of underwriting can be introduced.
Business Green 27th Nov 2017 read more »
Alan Whitehead: I had grown tired of asking Ministers when the Clean Growth Strategy was going to turn up, and have had a variety of responses as to when it would. We journeyed along a year-plus road that led from the passing of the fifth carbon budget, past the date by which the plan should have emerged in response to the budget, and eventually – hooray – to last Thursday, when it finally emerged. So is it any good and does it do what it is supposed to do?
Alan Whitehead’s Blog 27th Nov 2017 read more »
