3rd December 2009

The UK Government has announced that there are no longer any grants available towards the cost of installing solar PV panels in the Public Sector and Charities. The grant scheme, known as the low carbon buildings programme has been plagued with stop-start problems since its inception. Demand has repeatedly outstripped supply leading to considerable business and investor uncertainty. The government has also indicated it will now delay until the New Year an announcement, originally planned for next week, of funding levels for a longer-term incentive scheme known as Clean Energy Cashback.

Micropower Council CEO, Dave Sowden said: "The Microgeneration industry has repeatedly reinforced to government the importance of stability and certainty in this fragile sector. The combination of the delay to announcing longer term funding levels and the pulling of the rug for this part of the current grants programme is another knock to business and investor confidence and puts jobs directly in jeopardy – the very so-called “green jobs” that the government considers so important in helping economic recovery.

“This is yet another example of how the UK, instead of developing a world-beating track record in creating jobs, manufacturing, and leadership in an important new green sector, prefers to fiddle with the detail, not only putting jobs in the green sector at risk, but also undermining its international credibility as a world leader on climate change issues, less than a week before the Copenhagen summit”.

Further information: Jane Vaus, 020 7924 0795 or 077480 10447 jane.vaus@micropower.co.uk

NOTES

The term “Microgeneration” broadly refers to a range of technologies that small users, typically householders can use to produce heat or power from renewable or low carbon sources – the next step beyond energy efficiency measures such as insulation.

The government’s own figures suggest that up to 7 million homes could have some form of microgeneration installed by 2020, making it an important contributor to EU targets for renewable energy and reductions in CO2 emissions.

The Micropower Council is the umbrella voice of the UK microgeneration industry and the only body representing the full cross-section of micropower technologies. www.micropower.co.uk