Solar energy firms in plea for rethink on subsidy cuts (From Haringey Independent)
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Haringey solar energy firms in plea for rethink on subsidy cuts to Lynne Featherstone
4:30pm Friday 13th January 2012 in Top Stories
Marcela Teran of Muswell Hill Friends of the Earth, MP Lynne Featherstone, chief executive of Ecodomus Dermot Barnes, and Mark Kragh of solar panel wholesaler Know Your Planet.
SOLAR energy businesses in Haringey met a Hornsey politician this morning to plead for a rethink over cuts in subsidies to homeowners who install panels.
Hornsey and Wood Green MP Lynne Featherstone visited Ecodomus, a sustainable building consultancy in Princess Lane, Muswell Hill, to hear how a Government decision to halve the feed-in tariff – a payment given to homes that generate electricity through solar panels – had devastated the borough’s industry.
A High Court judge branded the decision to change payments from December 12 unlawful last month, but Energy Secretary Chris Huhne will learn today if an appeal is successful.
Ecodomus has had to make two of its eight employees redundant since the change, which the Department of Energy and Climate Change says is vital to keep the scheme within budget after it was far more popular than predicted.
Quentin Given, of Tottenham and Wood Green Friends of the Earth, said that Ms Featherstone has listened to the concerns of businesses and environmental campaigners and promised to pass them onto Mr Huhne.
He added: “Firms like these had plans to expand but now there are question marks over that in Haringey.
“The feed-in tariff has been very successful and helped to encourage people to take up solar panels, which is exactly what it was brought in to do.”
A survey of 320 people in the borough by the group revealed that 56 per cent thought solar power was the best source to invest in to reduce dependency on non-renewable energy.
