Response to Feed in Tariff decision announcement

Last updated: 13/06/2011 Add to My Bookmarks Subscribe

Following this weeks announcement by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, Cornwall Council cabinet member for climate change Julian German said: “Cornwall has the most to lose from yesterday’s decision. With the fact that we have the highest levels of solar irradiation on the mainland UK there has been a huge amount of investment opportunity from solar park development.  There are two key reasons why Cornwall Council is very disappointed with the decision announced by DECC yesterday.

Firstly - in developing its own 5MW solar park the council has been nationally acknowledged as demonstrating great leadership following the Government’s own guidance that local authorities can generate electricity from renewables to create an income to support its community activities. As the result of the Fast Track Review we are now having to reassess the position as to whether or not we can continue with the construction of the Kernow Solar Park which is due for construction in the autumn.

Secondly – the Council has also been leading best practice by working with developers to ensure that communities and local businesses would receive direct economic benefits from the construction of commercial solar parks. Now only a small amount are being built in a rush to be operational before the 01 August deadline.

Although we are disappointed with the Government’s decision, this will not curtail Cornwall Council’s ambition to be the greenest local authority in the United Kingdom. We will pursue our plans to reduce our carbon footprint through a multitude of actions including the deployment of small scale solar pv, wind power, the inclusion of electric cars and more bio mass boilers in our buildings.”

Story posted 10 June 2011