A local businessman has hit out at Government plans to amend
feed in tariffs (FIT's) for solar installations this week and has
pledged to start a campaign in a bid to prevent such cuts going
ahead.
Stuart Price (44) from Ruddington in Nottingham, owns a solar
panel installation firm called Sunshine Energy, is making it his
personal mission to prevent such cuts, and is encouraging local
businesses to show their support, attending rally's in London and
writing letters to his local MP to emphasise the dramatic effect
that these cuts will have not just on businesses like his, but on
the environment.
Under the new plans, domestic installations below 4kW will face
cuts of over 50 per-cent, and community or school sized ones above
50kW will face their second tariff cut in six months, causing the
demand for such systems to plummet.
Stuart Price, who has been involved in environmental issues both
locally and nationally for many years said: "These cuts are a
bitter blow for those businesses that have accepted environmental
responsibility and installed solar panels, homeowners who invested
in such systems, businesses such as mine and ultimately the
environment.
"I am so passionate about this that I have been speaking to
local businesses to encourage them to write letters against the
proposed cuts, I have been educating those who already have such
installations about what they can expect if the cuts go through and
I have also been writing letters and attending rally's in London to
get advice on how best to lobby my local MP. I am calling the
campaign 'Save Our Solar'"
The proposed changes will mean that any generator who has not
ensured that their FITs application is received by their chosen
electricity supplier before 12th December, or in the case of
non-domestic installations receipt by Ofgem of a ROO-FIT
application, will get the new, reduced rates.
Stuart added: "We now have just weeks to stop these cuts from
going ahead and convince Government to work with the industry to
cut the costs of subsidy without wrecking the companies and jobs
that we have created. We need to let MPs and Ministers know
just how serious these cuts are for the industry, and convince them
not to throw away all the progress the FIT has delivered in
building a solar industry.
Please visit http://www.oursolarfuture.org.uk/support-solar/ now
to sign the petition and find out how you can campaign against
these cuts.