Conservatives plan to extend feed in tariff in attempt to phase out the Renewables Obligation

12 Apr 2010

The news that the Conservatives plan to phase out the Renewables Obligation is causing disquiet in the renewables industry. Hardly surprising, when we are talking about projects with a typical 25-year life span. Financial - and fiscal - certainty is crucial to these projects and if there is any doubt about the long term tax regime it will be just too risky to undertake these investments.

There's a question, too, over feed-in tariffs themselves. George Monbiot wrote a very scathing article in the Guardian recently. He states that feed-in tariffs are an extremely expensive way of cutting carbon emissions and will divert billions of pounds to solar panels and roof-top turbines which are nothing more than middle-class fashion accessories. You can read the article here.

For more on the reaction of industry to the idea of abolishing the Renewables Obligation, see the original article from businessGreen.com.