Payment change to boost solar power

Households and businesses will soon have a far greater incentive to install solar panels and wood-fired boilers and use other forms of renewable energy as the government announces new payments for home energy generation today.

But some environmentalists say the scheme, to be announced by Ed Miliband, energy secretary, might not be enough to stimulate large-scale microgeneration.

Makers of generation equipment are hoping for a boom in sales and expect to take on more workers as those buying the devices can look forward to hundreds of pounds a year from electricity companies. Only a tiny fraction of homes have such equipment, and critics blame the lack of an effective subsidy system to reward householders.

The current subsidy system was designed mainly for utility scale generation. Mr Miliband will announce "feed-in tariffs" by which people will gain a fixed sum for every unit of electricity they produce, far in excess of that on offer for commercial-scale fossil fuel generation.

 

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