Renewable News Archive

New evidence on wind turbines and health from the USA

The Massachusetts Department of Environment has published a study which finds that “there is no evidence for a set of health effects…that could be characterized as ‘Wind Turbine Syndrome.’”.

For full details click here

January 2012

Today 31 January, leading green media companies agree a blackout on misleading claims by solar installers
James Murray, editor of BusinessGreen, said the aim of the blackout was to protect both readers and reputable solar firms from misleading claims about the current level of incentives for solar installations.
"Rightly or wrongly the government has created confusion in the solar market by again appealing against a court ruling that deemed its proposed cuts to feed-in tariffs were unlawful," he explained. "But there are some adverts and claims circulating that ignore the nuance of the case and are attempting to drum up short term business based on misleading claims.

Uncertainty prevails over policy, a sea change from this time last year when we basked in the glow of Greg Barker's promise as Energy Minister of "TLC - Transparency, Longevity and Consistency". This was shortly followed by the emergency review of support for large scale solar PV. 

We have seen the first phase of the Feed In Tariff (FIT) review brought forward (see below) for solar pv, and successfully challenged by Friends of the Earth: we now await the Appeal decision, concerned that if the Government loses the short term gain made by solar pv will be at the cost of other renewables who share the same FIT budget. Our consultation response may be found here .

We have been working hard on both Anaerobic Digestion and other forms of bioenergy, arguing that CLA members can deliver both food and energy with the right policies. We now await the outcome of these labours in the publication (due soon) of the Government's Bioenergy Strategy.

We await publication of phase 2 of the FIT consultation, but in the interim have been feeding ideas on what changes CLA would recommend in our lobbying work.

We have engaged with the welcome Government energy red tape review and our response may be found here

We are currently working on a response to the Government consultation on the proposed changes to support for larger scale renewable electricity under the Renewables Obligation.

July 2011

In the last few weeks we have seen the launch of the Government's Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Strategy and Action Plan, confirmation that not only was the Government determined to cut payments for larger scale solar PV (over 50kW), and the launch of the Electricity Market Reform consultation and White Paper.

The CLA has been involved in all of these, sitting on the steering group of the AD Action Plan (and managing to ameliorate some of the less favourable things the original draft placed at AD's door), responding to  the Emergency Review of the Feed In Tariff, and ensuring that the officials who put together the electricity market reform were careful to exclude smaller scale renewables from their proposals, so that t current Feed In Tariff can continue unchanged.

The CLA has been pressing the Government for action on environmental regulation of AD and briefed the House of Lords in the debate on the Feed In Tariff review.

18 March 2011

Many members have invested time, energy, and in some cases large sums of cash in seeking to bring forward larger scale solar PV projects (over 50kW). These were effectively stopped dead by the announcement of the proposed new rates in the Emergency Review that were published on 18 March. There remains a narrow window for those who are in a position to complete, connect and register projects over 50kW before the rates change on 1 August.

10 March 2011

Members have been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the details of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) which were published on 10 March. The CLA has been lobbying for more than 10 years to persuade the Government to provide long-term stable support for those who want to switch from fossil fuels such as oil and LPG to renewables for providing the heat requirements of their homes and businesses. We were delighted that at long last the policy has been announced, but disappointed that at least initially the support will be made available only to non-domestic premises and district heating schemes.