UK running out of time to deliver affordable low-carbon energy system
The Royal Academy of Engineering has published a report warning the government that time is running out for it to make planning decisions and gain the investment needed to deliver a secure, affordable, low-carbon energy system. The report explains that the government must push forward with securing deals for new nuclear, offshore wind, carbon capture and storage projects, following its plan to cut subsidies to solar energy and onshore wind earlier this year. Dr Keith MacLean, Chairman of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) advisory board believes that the government subsidy cuts suggest "that we’ve got magical new policies and technologies which we are suddenly going to pull out like a rabbit from the hat, and that’s just an illusion."

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The government’s energy policy ‘reset’, which has seen solar and onshore wind subsides cut, is “unhelpful”, Britain’s energy experts have warned, arguing that time is running out to make crucial planning decisions and get the huge investment needed to deliver a secure, affordable and low-carbon energy system in the decades to come.

In a report prepared for the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, the Royal Academy of Engineering said that Ministers must now drive forward new capacity in “big ticket items” of nuclear, offshore wind farms and technology which captures and stores carbon emissions from fossil fuel power plants.

Dr David Clarke, chief executive of the Energy Technologies Institute who led the study, said: “The message from this report is there are a number of major programmes already in train in terms of UK government policy and policy support.

“And four of those programmes are offshore wind, new nuclear, carbon capture and storage and heat. They’re already in train. Do not derail them. Or if you do, recognise the cost penalty for the future that will come with it.”

Dr Keith MacLean, chairman of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) advisory board, added: “It’s rather unhelpful, this talk there has been at the moment of a reset of energy policy from the Secretary of State.

“It suggests that we’ve got magical new policies and technologies which we are suddenly going to pull out like a rabbit from the hat, and that’s just an illusion.”

The warning comes amid fears from renewable energy experts that a government consultation on proposed changes to the solar Feed in Tariffs (FITs) scheme will whitewash any objections.

The FITs scheme, which means people receive money from their energy supplier if using a low-carbon source such as solar power, has led to 700,000 homes across the UK installing solar panels.

Solar panels around the world Show all 11 1 / 11 Solar panels around the world Solar panels around the world China Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the Chint Group office building in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China Rex Features Solar panels around the world France On 13 October 2011 France launched its largest-ever solar energy farm, with an array of panels spread over about 200 hectares (500 acres) in the mountainous southern Alpes-de-Haute-Provence region in Les Mees. With a production capacity of 90 megawatts, the vast photovoltaic park features nearly 113,000 solar panels and was built at a cost of 110 million euros ($137 million) AFP Solar panels around the world United States Solar Panels, Photovoltaic array at the University of New Mexico, Taos campus, USA Rex Features Solar panels around the world China Large solar panels are seen in a solar power plant in Hami, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region AFP Solar panels around the world France Some of the panels of France's biggest photovoltaic power station in Bordeaux. This station, with its 60.000 panels set on the parking of the Bordeaux-Lac international fair was launched in May 2012 AFP Solar panels around the world France Built on a former NATO base, this is one of the most important photovoltaic plant in France, located at Crucey near Chartres. It was developed by electricity provider EDF (Electricite de France) AFP Solar panels around the world UK The project manager from solar century walks between lines of solar panels erected at Weighbridge, Wheal Jane, Baldhu near Truro, England. Launched in 2011, this was the first solar farm in the South West and biggest in the UK Getty Images Solar panels around the world China A worker climbs over a solar panel at a solar factory in Longyou county, Zhejiang province Reuters Solar panels around the world Germany Workers install solar panels containing photovoltaic cells at the new Solarpark Eggersdorf solar park in 2012 near Muencheberg, Germany. The park, which was being built by German solar energy operator juwi Solar GmbH and contains 85,000 solar modules and is one of many similar projects in eastern Germany Getty Images Solar panels around the world UK In 2010 homeowners had solar panels installed this month as growing numbers of people and companies look to cash in on the Government's renewable energy scheme PA Solar panels around the world United States In 2009 a solar panel system was installed on the roof of a business building in Gainesville, Florida. Gainesville became the first city in the nation to have a solar feed-in tariff ordinance which meant owners of new solar photovoltaic systems were eligible to receive 32 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced by the system over the next 20 years Getty Images

However, the government now wants to drastically reduce how much people receive.

Three options being considered in the consultation - leave the schemes as it is, close the scheme, or - the preferred option - changing some tariff bands and the introduction of caps.

The proposals, due to come into force in January, will cut the tariff paid for electricity generated by solar rooftop panels from 12.4p to 1.6p. It is hoped the proposed measures will bring down consumer bills.

The Solar Trade Association estimates the cuts will mean a loss of up to 27,000 of 35,000 industry jobs.

Despite Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom telling the Energy and Climate Change select committee this week she was keeping an “open mind” about the preferred option to slash the subsidy, renewable experts fear the worst.

Several renewable energy experts told the Independent they believed the Treasury would overrule Mrs Leadsom even if she decided to halt the cuts following the consultation process. “This decision’s going to be made in the Treasury, rather than DECC,” one said.

The Energy Saving Trust said wholesale energy prices are not falling fast enough yet for the technology to be subsidy free and that the proposed changes go “too far, too fast”. It has proposed an alternative option to making the FITs programme work.

David Weatherall, Policy Adviser at the trust, said: “Analysis undertaken by Energy Saving Trust specialists shows that we can protect Feed-in Tariffs for homes, schools and communities for a cost to each household of only 24p a year. And the total amount of clean energy generated through our proposed revised programme would be roughly equivalent to the capacity of the massive planned new Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant (3.2GW).”