The UK government will launch a consultation over the transfer of feed-in tariff (FiT) payments from one building to another before the end of the year, according to Amber Rudd, the minister for energy and climate change.
Rudd told attendees at Solar Energy UK that the move will form part of a concerted push to unblock barriers to commercial rooftop deployment, a sector the minister described as “little-tapped”.
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The minister said: “One issue we hear very regularly is that the FiT does not allow for one installation to be moved from one building to another and that this acts as a barrier to deployment in the mid-scale, roof-mounted sector. In response to that, we will be consulting before the end of the year as to whether or not we allow mid-scale, building-mounted solar PV to transfer from one building to another without losing its FiT accreditation.”
The lack of flexibility surrounding FiT payments has often been cited as a significant barrier to the adoption of commercial-scale solar in the UK due to incompatible lease terms and project lifetimes.
Rudd added that she could not go into further detail on the proposals because they were “being worked up by my officials as we speak” but asked the industry to look out for the consultation.
Rudd’s predecessor Greg Barker pledged to put “rocket boosters” under the rooftop market in the UK.
Industry has called for higher FiTs which it says are insufficient to kick-start the sector.
