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German environment minister Norbert Röttgen continues his adamant refusal to cap new PV installations. However, perhaps in order to reach some semblance of a compromise and placate his Free Democrat coalition partners, he has suggested bringing forward reductions in the country’s FiTs by three months to April 1.
The Court of Appeal has today upheld a High Court ruling that the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) acted illegally over planned cuts to Britain’s feed-in tariff. After deliberating over the decision for 10 days, three Court of Appeal judges ruled that DECC’s proposals would have constituted retrospective changes to feed-in tariff contracts and are therefore unlawful.
The Italian council of ministers has approved an amendment to the Quarto Conto Energia to cease the proviso of incentives for PV solar systems on agricultural land from 2013. However, the change will not apply to plants built within the next 12 months. The government is aiming to encourage and boost competition in the national economy, causing a boom in solar PV-related manufacturing. Previously, the law demanded a 1MW limitation to installations on the condition that less than 10% of the land was covered with panels.
Following meetings between the German government and solar industry representatives yesterday, Germany’s Federal Minister of Energy and Environment, Norbert Röttgen, has announced his intention to accelerate the degression of feed-in tariffs. The Renewable Energy Act will need to be rewritten in order to incorporate the changes. Both the government and the solar industry were said to have agreed that FiTs should be cut every month, rather than the current six months, to avoid the last minute rush that, in 2011, created a record level of 7.5GW capacity.
The UK government has laid before parliament its proposals to reduce feed-in tariff rates for new PV installations with an eligibility date on or after March 3, 2012. The move is an attempt by Westminster to provide some certainty to the world’s eighth largest solar market, which has been left stranded by a legal battle surrounding the premature lowering of the solar PV feed-in tariff rate.
Tensions in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s government continue over the future of feed-in tariffs. Economy minister Philipp Roesler is calling for an overhaul to the country’s subsidy system for renewable energy, created in the 1990s to ensure the clean-power industry remains competitive.
India-based, thin-film PV manufacturer Moser Baer has installed a 5MW solar farm, equivalent to powering 70,000 households, covering an area of 60 acres in Tinwari, Jodhpur district, India. This is part of the US$1 billion the company has promised the Indian states of Gujarat, Orissa, West Bengal and Rajasthan, for projects worth 300MW. The farm was built under the solar subsidy scheme, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The opening ceremony was attended by the renewable energy minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Ashok Gehlot, chief minister of Rajasthan.
This is the first of a 652kW solar project in the Maldives launched this week. Through a power-purchasing agreement signed by State Electric Company (STELCO) with Renewable Energy Maldives (REM), 61kW panels, on the island of Villingili were switched on by Germany’s Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Katherina Reiche. German solar firm, Wirsol, provided technology and financing.
Law firm Metaxas and Associates has been approached by a Greek PV equipment construction company (the details of which are yet to be disclosed) to draft a legal opinion regarding the compatibility of feed-in tariffs with EU State Aid Law.
The Portuguese national solar association, Apisolar, has insinuated expectations of a 30% decrease in newly installed collector areas this year due to changes in solar subsidies.
