Money targeted at household micro-generation being used to pay for fields of PV cells in Cornwall

The government has said it is concerned that the feed in tariff [FIT] scheme, designed to encourage micro-generation of electricity on buildings, is being abused by developers setting up large scale solar farms.

Four Cornish solar panel farms have been set up on the back of the fund, which was created in April last year to pay homeowners and organisations for electricity generated through solar panels and wind turbines.

Energy minister Charles Hendry told the Guardian that solar farms could use up the limited pot of money set aside for the tariff.

“We have indicated a concern that [the FIT] is intended for micro-generation. If all the funding was taken up by large scale commercial operations, that would be against the spirit of what is being intended.

“We see the objective as having a significant number of small installations in place rather than solar farms,” he said.

A review of the FIT is expected to come out this week, brought forward from 2012, the paper also reported.

 

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