Thursday 09 Dec 2010 @ 12:30
Department of Energy and Climate Change
Printable version E-mail this to a friend

Faster review of support for Renewable electricity to provide investor certainty

Developers of new large-scale renewable electricity projects will get earlier and greater certainty about how much support they will receive under the Renewables Obligation from 2013, Energy Minister Charles Hendry announced yesterday.

Industry will now get an indication of the support they will receive for new large-scale projects that start generating renewable electricity from April 2013, as early as mid-July 2011. Under previous arrangements, support levels were not due to be finalised until Autumn 2012, meaning developers had been reluctant to start projects with long construction periods.

Announcing the changes to the timetable for the 2010-13 Renewables Obligation banding review at the Parliamentary Renewable and Sustainable Energy Group, Charles Hendry said:

“We are determined to increase significantly the amount of renewables in our energy mix and we want to remove barriers to this goal. The previous timetable for reviewing support for large-scale renewable electricity developments created some uncertainty for investors, so we’ve decided to bring it forward.

“Taking this action will help us realise our full potential for growth in renewable electricity. We think we’ve found the right balance between speeding up the process and making sure our decisions are based on solid analysis”.

DECC now intends to consult on new banding proposals in Summer 2011 and confirm the new bands by Autumn 2011. The new bands will take effect on 1 April 2013 as originally planned, subject to State Aids and Parliamentary approval.

Notes for Editors:

  1. The Energy Act 1989 (as amended by Section 37 of the Energy Act 2008) requires the Government to carry out regular reviews of the banding levels under the Renewables Obligation. The Renewables Obligation Order 2009 allows for these regular reviews to commence at four-yearly intervals, with the first starting in October 2010.
  2. Bands for renewable technologies are reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that as innovations come in and market conditions within sectors change and evolve, developers continue to receive the correct level of support necessary to maintain investment in the renewables industry.
  3. DECC published the process and timetable for the 2010-13 Renewables Obligation Banding Review in March this year. This said that Government would consult on new banding proposals in Spring 2012 and announce its decision on banding levels by Autumn 2012. The accelerated timetable announced today brings this part of the process forward by a year.
  4. More details on the review process and accelerated timetable are available from the DECC Renewables ObligationExternal link web page.

 

 

 

Mobilising excellence in prison operations