The Government announced the final details for the FITs’ April launch on February 1st, 2010
Those who were following the process will be interested in the late changes the Government made as a result of the consultation responses received.
You can read the full versions by downloading pdfs of the consultation responses received and the Government’s answer. If it makes heavy reading, you may find the following highlights helpful!
Promptly after the announcement, the Government closed the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to electricity systems.
Final changes to the Feed-In Tariffs for renewable electricity
Overall verdict: Some welcome improvements
Higher tariff levels
Some of the proposed tariff levels have been raised, especially for systems at the household scale. The tariff for small scale PV has been raised from 36.5 to 41.3 p/kWh and there have similarly been increases for small-scale hydro and wind.
The full list of tariffs is shown on our Tariff Levels Table. The tariffs for micro-CHP have also been included. Unfortunately, biomass tariffs have now been omitted so biomass power generation will now be rewarded only under the Renewables Obligation.
The Government says that while the tariff levels are designed to give a return of up to 8%, the benefit of index linking (see below) may take this up towards 10%. Private customers have the added benefit of the income tax exemption.
Index linkage:
The generation tariffs are to be index-linked to the retail price index and so will the export tariff.
Export tariff:
The price floor for exports has been reduced to 3p/kWh. However, the ability to opt out of this ‘minimum level’ and negotiate prices with energy suppliers is now no longer a one-off choice – you can decide annually.
Existing systems:
Sadly these remain ineligible, except those transferring from the Renewables Obligation (at the fixed rate of 9p/kWh). The Government has also ruled out refurbished and re-commissioned systems from being eligible.
‘Degression’:
The Government has deferred the start of degression until 2012. They have also made it clearer. We reconfirm that the tariff you get is fixed at the time the system is installed and then adjusted only for inflation. It’s only systems installed in future years which get a lower tariff.