Feed-in tariff "killing off" burgeoning UK small turbine industry

UK small wind turbine manufacturers say they will lose out to foreign solar

panel manufacturers in the race to cash in on the UK government's new feed-in

tariff scheme.

They claim their products will be penalised because solar panel owners will

receive higher government subsidies than wind turbine buyers. As the arrangement

stands, a wind turbine would qualify for 26.7-34.5p per KWh in government

subsidies, while solar panels would typically bring in 41p per KWh.

Turbine manufacturers will also have to pay a fee of up to £100,000 to have

their models certified for the scheme, and they argue that planning rules make

it harder for customers to get approval for turbines.

Due to come into effect on 1 April, the tariff – also known as Clean Energy

Cashback – will offer home owners a government subsidy for installing

small-scale renewable energy technologies, including solar panels and wind

turbines.

Alex Murley, RenewableUK's head of small systems, said: "Small wind is the

only microgeneration technology which UK manufacturers dominate the market for.

If we don't get this right we could be shooting ourselves in the foot and

killing off a burgeoning UK success story."

According to Renewable UK,

planning applications for small wind turbines have traditionally taken up to 14

months to process. Britain's oldest surviving small wind manufacturer,

Ampair, has accused some local

authorities of "systematically rejecting" applications.

The government promises to allow households to install small turbines without

planning permission from June, but turbine manufacturers say the current

planning allowance is too limited, restricting domestic wind turbines to a hub

height of 10 metres and 2.2 metres blade diameter.

This will allow a 1.5KW turbine, producing an average of 800KWh a year in

windy conditions – less than a fifth of the average UK household's electricity

needs. By comparison, UK panel installer Solarcentury has estimated that the

typical 18 metre square domestic solar panel installation would on average

generate just over 2,000KWh – nearly half the average household's electricity

consumption.

The government's Energy Saving Trust said that although such limitations are

fine for urban roof top turbines, wind turbines in rural locations need to be

bigger for small wind turbines to generate a significant amount of energy for

the UK. It is these rural locations that will generate the lion's share of

energy from "small" turbines. EST figures published last year show small

turbines could meet four per cent of the UK's electricity demands but only four

per cent of that energy would come from small turbines in urban locations.

UK manufacturers currently produce four-fifths of the country's small

turbines, 3,500 of which were installed in the UK in 2008. All larger wind

turbines and the vast majority of solar panels are manufactured abroad.

David Sharman, managing director of Ampair, claims the UK government is

penalising its own manufacturing industry through inequalities in the feed-in

tariff.

He also claims that the rigorous tests to qualify for the tariff's quality

assurance certificate, the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), are

prohibitively expensive at at £50,000-£100,000 per product certified. No small

wind turbines have so far been MCS accreditedbut the government has set up an

MCS 'transition list' for small wind turbines, which allows them to temporarily

qualify for the tariff for one year while they complete the accreditation

scheme.

Responding to criticism of planning restrictions for wind, a spokesperson for

the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "We consulted on the proposals

to find the right balance for these technologies. We want to enable homeowners

to install microgeneration easily and also make sure we're fair about planning

permission for larger installations. Different homes will be suitable for

different technologies based on a number of factors – it's not a one size fits

all."

This article first appeared at the

Guardian

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