UK government soothe fears over green incentive cuts

(ADPnews) - Oct 22, 2010 - The UK government has soothed investors' fears over cuts of renewable energy incentives, saying that it will prioritise investment in green power infrastructure.

On Wednesday George Osborne presented the Spending Review, which aims to address the country’s GBP 109 billion (USD 171bn/EUR 123bn) budget deficit. He pledged GBP 860 million of funding for the Renewable Heat Incentive subsidy measure, and another GBP 200 million for low-carbon technologies including offshore wind farms and manufacturing infrastructure at port sites.

Osborne also revealed that the government will initially capitalise a new Green Investment Bank with GBP 1 billion of funding, but he hoped more money would be raised by the private sector and the sale of government-owned assets. The bank will make its investment decisions independent from political control and will employ private sector skills and expertise. The government aims to complete design and testing work by the spring of 2011.

However, other incentive schemes are due to be scaled back, with feed-in tariffs set to be refocused on the most cost-effective technologies to save GBP 40 million in 2014-15. These changes will not be implemented until the first scheduled review of tariffs though, unless higher than expected deployment requires an early review.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.572/EUR 1.127)

Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!