Renewable Energy Installer December/January 2016 | Page 9

News: Profile
The Year of the Axe
You won’t find it in the Chinese animal zodiac, but 2015 has certainly deserved the
epithet of Year of the Axe, reports REI editor Paul Stephen
e exit the year following on from
12 torrid months dominated by
the loss of multiple financial
incentives, enacted by a new
government barely six months
into its five year term.
We entered 2015 on a very different
note, however, with predictions centred on
the performance of the domestic RHI.
Introduced in April 2014, it’s fortunes were
riding high in February as it passed the 20,000
installations milestone, and heat pumps were
added as an eligible technology.
March was a busy month on the
tradeshow front with Ecobuild registering
40,000 visitors at London’s ExCel, and 198,000
visitors flocking to Messe Frankfurt for this
year’s ISH, where more than 2,400 companies
exhibited.
In other news, standards for
thermodynamic systems were approved
by the MCS, whilst the coalition government’s
final budget failed to set any pulses racing as
renewable energy barely registered a mention.
May heralded substantial change as the
Conservatives scored an outright victory at
the General Election, to form a first Tory
majority government for 18 years. With a
W
Tough at the top: Since her elevation to energy
secretary in May, Amber Rudd has presided over
a succession of disappointing subsidy cuts
fresh mandate in hand, prime minister David
Cameron elevated Amber Rudd to energy
secretary, replacing Ed Davey who had the
misfortune to also lose his seat as the Liberal
Democrats received heavy punishment from
the electorate.
Although the Conservative’s pledge to
relentlessly bear down on public spending
made budget cuts at DECC a certainty, the
scale of reduction to expenditure on low
carbon energy over the coming months was
less easy to foresee.
Elsewhere, REI attended Intersolar in
Munich in June as an official media partner
to see first hand the impact of new storage
products, in particular Tesla’s Powerwall.
The summer months saw the start
to a steady stream of hard-hitting policy
announcements as consultations opened
to remove onshore wind and then solar
under 5MW from the Renewables
Obligation. The first was consistent with the
Conservative’s pre-election manifesto pledges,
whilst the second was severely criticised for
denting investor confidence and standing in
direct contrast to previous commitments to
boost the commercial rooftop market.
The next blow to the sector came from
chancellor George Osborne who decreed in
July that long-established plans to make new
homes carbon neutral by 2016 were to be
abandoned in an attempt to stimulate growth
in construction.
In July the government also confirmed
that further funding would be halted for
Green Deal. Despite its underperformance,
the decision to end this flagship scheme
was roundly criticised for the absence of any
alternative.
In September, The Heating &
Renewables Roadshow wound its
way across the UK whilst The Heating &
Renewables Awards, hosted by comedian
Jason Manford, celebrated the achievements
and hard work of the industry with 15 highly-
coveted awards.
First appearance: The most striking
technological development of 2015 has been the
introduction of energy storage solutions to the
market
September also infamously saw the
launch of an eight week consultation into
proposals to cut the Feed-in Tariff by almost
90 percent to prevent ‘projected overspend’.
Facing a catastrophic drop in domestic
demand for solar, the PV sector responded
with dismay at the withdrawal of support
for a technology so close to grid parity and
becoming subsidy free.
A petition calling on the government
to backtrack on the scale of cuts attracted
thousands of signatures, whilst the STA
unveiled a rescue plan for solar which cost
consumers just £1 a year to fund.
The announcement’s impact was quickly
felt by the supply chain with Mark Group,
Climate Group and Southern Solar all heading
into administration.
The FiT consultation closed on October
23, and the government’s formal response still
unknown at the time of going to print. The
Comprehensive Spending Review on
November 25 will dictate any future spending
on the RHI.
www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk | 9