Industry success in the form of the RO

Schneider Electric has welcomed the news the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has u-turned on its proposals to remove Renewable Obligation (RO) support for smaller scale renewable energy developments.

“It’s refreshing to see UK government is listening to businesses operating within the market place and responding effectively”, said Darren Farrar, customer marketing manager at Schneider Electric. “The renewable energy industry is a growth sector for the UK and it’s important that the government continues to support and nurture it, which is why this is such good news.”

The government had originally proposed to exclude small scale solar, anaerobic digestion, onshore wind and hydro power installations, sized between 50kW and 5MW, from the RO and instead use the Feed-in-Tariff as the support mechanism. The issue of funding is a crucial one as the FiT actually delivers lower funding than the RO and therefore could potentially inhibit growth and investment in some of these technology areas.

However, government listened to industry and as Greg Barker, energy and climate change minister said: “now is not the time to make further changes to these schemes.”

Farrar said: “We can only hope this is a sign of things to come and that government has truly turned a page with regards to supporting the renewable energy market place. Industry has been campaigning for some time for clarity in the system to ensure continued investment and this is a step in the right direction.

“We’re well aware of the changes afoot with regards the Energy Market Reform and Contracts for Difference in 2017 but for the time being, the announcement gives industry the clarity that it needs to continue to invest and that’s exactly what we had hoped for.”