Latest news on FITs ...

[EccentricAnomaly]

effing madness.

Ah, that's what the "F" stands for, I did wonder.

[danny-solar]

I notice for 2 years the FIT stays at 41p and then year 3 gets reduced.  Do we know what happens for the next 25 years?

[Ted]

Future FITs rates for new systems will be subject to reviews.  Once you are in FITs though they will stay the same subject to RPI indexing.  DECCs intention is that a return of 5-8% will always be maintained so tariffs will be based on what they think the current market install costs are.  There will be some leeway around this as market prices and the tariff reviews will obviously not be in sync all the time. 

This will lead to fluctuations in demand as people hang off ordering an installation in the hope that prices will be lower in the near future while the tariff doesn't drop until the next review is due.

This, in turn, will lead to market distortions and lack of a steady order book for installers/suppliers with cyclic activity.  It comes with the territory.

[guydewdney]

Cross party group WRT FiTs

http://www.praseg.org.uk/feed-in-tariffs-%E2%80%93-delivering-a-small-scale-electricity-revolution/

anyone want to go to the meeting - its 500 squid to join!

edit - as stated below - it appears that you dont need to be a member to go along! SWMBO has applied, and will be attending....

[desperate]

I just applied to attend and was accepted, no mention of a monkey, dunno weather I will get a chance to speak, but if I do, anyone want me to ask anything specific?

Desperate

[Ted]

Some heckling on the FITs abuse of existing owners, DIYers and second-hand systems would be appropriate.  A specific point would be that DIYers were considered perfectly acceptable under the ROCs scheme so why not so under FITs?

(Assuming you get past Security!)

[desperate]

Ted,   I am certainly going to try,  and maybe meet up with Mrs Dewdney?

Desperate

[desperate]

If anyone would like to attend the above meeting, but are concerned about getting home from london afterwards,  we have 2 spare beds at Cactusville and are happy to put you up for the night. This has recieved PP from Mrs Desp

Desperate

[noah]

Attending the meeting is free and I think I`ll be going. Joining the group is what costs £500. Which of course means that PRASEG is a group which will reflect the interests of its members which are those that can afford £500 (or write it off against tax). The group is dominated by (renewables and other) industry: not the sort of people who will be sympathetic to self-build types with attitude.
I have written to the MP`s who chair the group:
Dr Alan Whitehead MP
Malcolm Bruce MP
Andrew Robathan MP
Des Turner MP
asking that, as elected members they should look out for the interests of the individuals that cannot afford to be represented at PRASEG

[Other-Power]

Will it be possible to take in a camera or a Dictaphone so we can here what they have to say?

Regards

Jonathan

[linesrg]

Good Evening,
I have just been reading this thread or at least updating myself, you'll see I've just posted on the pioneers thread. Now I see that my local MP Malcolm Bruce is on PRASEG I now better understand the response from his parliamentary secretary. I will be writing to both her and his consituency office to expand on my first communication. It may all be in vain but I could possibly hope to see him up here face to face prior to this meeting?
Regards

Richard

[Ted]

Here's a copy of the email I've sent to PRASEG.

I would very much have liked to have attended the PRASEG meeting on the
evening of 24th February covering Feed in Tariffs, to be introduced by
DECC on 1st April, but it unfortunately clashes with our local Transition
Energy Group meeting we already have scheduled for that evening.

I wondered if it might be possible to put forward to you some of the issues that
are apparent to me with the new FITs scheme that DECC have announced.

1. The metering requirements for off-grid systems have not yet been defined.

It is currently not possible to install an off-grid system that is known to
be fully eligible for FITs due to this fact. Transitional arrangements, to
cover any interim period until the metering requirements have been officially
defined, have also not been clearly stated.

2. No MCS accreditation guidelines for hydro installers or manufacturers.

At present all PV, wind and hydro systems up to 50kW capacity need to be both
an MCS certified product and use an MCS certified installer in order to be FITs eligible.
But there are currently no MCS certified hydro systems available nor have the
MCS certification guidelines for hydro installers been published so it is
impossible for a potential hydro installer to know what conditions are to be
applied to them.

In consideration of the fact that a long time is needed for wind systems to
become approved (a minimum of 6 months field testing is required) the BWEA
have negotiated transitional arrangements to allow certain wind turbine
products to be considered certified to cover the interim period. No such
arrangements have been made for hydro.

The whole aspect of MCS product certification for hydro also ignores the
essentially bespoke nature of each individual hydro system that is required
in order to produce an optimum installation.

These failings with hydro represent a major problem for our particular area. We
have a multitude of old wool mills which are prime candidates for installing
hydro systems as well as many other river and stream-side properties. Some of
these old waterwheels could be refurbished - but if they were they would not
be eligible for FITs due to the 'second-hand' rule. Others could have new
replacement systems put in but there are no MCS certified products that could
be used.

3. DIY systems are no longer eligible.

Again this is a major problem for our area. West Wales has a reputation for
attracting 'self-sufficient' types who follow in the footsteps of the well
known author on the subject - John Seymour. Requiring MCS accreditation for
installers prevents any DIYer from accessing any of the FITs rates. This is
despite the fact that they were acceptable under ROCs and currently can
qualify for the 9p rate. Why has no category been assigned under FITs to,
at the very least, allow this to continue?

4. Second-hand and refurbished systems not eligible for FITs.

If any second-hand or refurbished components are used in a system then the
system is not eligible for FITs. This is a condition that DECC have introduced
that was not even covered in the consultation exercise - which strikes me as
singularly undemocratic.

It effectively wipes out probably 90% of the value of any second-hand system
in the UK, as no one would want to pay a higher price for a system that is
unable to recover its costs through FITs payments.

5. Treatment of 15th July 2009 (the publication date of the FITs consultation)
as a cut-off date between eligibility for full FITs rates and the double-ROC
9p rate. How can it be justified for someone who had their system installed on
14th July 2009 to lose 30p per kWh on their generation? I consider such a
retrospective action (from the the point of view of the implementation date of
the bill) to be contrary to natural justice.

6. There are many existing system owners who are so annoyed at the conditions
being imposed by DECC that they are quite prepared to dismantle their systems
and sell them off (probably outside the UK due to 4 above) rather than to
continue to accept these FITs rates. They are also prepared to do this while
generating the maximum amount of bad publicity possible for the government.

Thank you for your time and I would be greatly obliged if you could consider
the above noted topics when discussing Feed in Tariffs.

[noelsquibb]

bloody good letter Ted.

Can we quote from it ?

[Ted]

Feel free to if it helps in any way.

[Ted]

Paul Truelove, the creator of the epetition at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Microgenerators/ has received a reply from Charles Handy.

Dear Mr Truelove

Many thanks for your email which was passed to me by David Cameron.

I understand the frustration at the system which has been put in place for those of you who were early users of micro-generation. When we forced the Government to reluctantly accept the principle of the feed-in tariff in the Energy Bill 2008, we had anticipated that a fair and swift consultation would encourage the uptake of micro-generation on a large scale. We are therefore disappointed that the feed-in tariff is still to come into force.

It is also clearly unfair to you that you will remain on the current funding mechanism. You will be pleased therefore to hear that we have decided that if a Conservative Government is elected, we would ensure that micro-generation equipment installed before feed-in tariffs come into effect will nevertheless be entitled to the same terms as new installations.

I hope that this is good news for you, and once again thank you for taking the time to write.

Charles Hendry
Member of Parliament for Wealden
Shadow Minister for Energy
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

From http://www.microgenerators.info/what_the_conservatives_say.html