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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment he has made of the potential effects of EU state aid rules on the UK feed in tariff policy framework; and if he will make a statement.

Gregory Barker

The European Commission adopted new guidelines for Energy and Environmental Aid (EEAG) on 9 April. Existing schemes, such as the Feed-in Tariff scheme (FITs), are not required to be brought into line with these new guidelines for as long as the relevant scheme remains covered by its existing EU state aid approval. It would only need to be brought into line if we were to introduce a change to the scheme that would, in itself, require state aid notification, as this would be outside the existing approval. If, after consultation on any alterations to FITs, we were to propose such a change, we would consider the trade-offs and risks for the scheme as a whole before reaching a final policy decision.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people employed in the UK solar PV sector in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and (e) 2014.

Gregory Barker

DECC does not hold this data.

In March the National Solar Centre estimated that the industry employs 13,723 people on a full time basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the proposed reduction in solar farm support under the Renewables Obligation on planned community-owned or shared ownership schemes.

Gregory Barker

The Government published the second part of our UK Solar PV Strategy Part 2 [1] on 4 April 2014. We made clear in that document that we are considering the implications of current trends of deployment in solar PV on the financial incentives available in Great Britain under the Renewables Obligation and small-scale Feed-in-Tariffs. We will issue a public consultation shortly proposing changes to financial support for solar PV.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-solar-pv-strategy-part-1-roadmap-to-a-brighter-future

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of contracts for difference auctioning on small and medium-sized enterprises in the (a) renewable energy sector and (b) solar power industry.

Michael Fallon

The Department launched a consultation on our approach to competitive allocation of Contracts for Difference (CfDs) in January 2014. This included proposals to move to auctioning of CfDs from the first allocation this autumn. We carefully considered the responses to the consultation from small and medium-sized enterprises in the renewable energy sector and the solar power industry before confirming our policy position in the Government Response published on 13 May 2014. We will continue to engage with SMEs as we implement our proposals for competitive allocation to understand any difficulties they might face in participating in an auction for CfDs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the amount of private-sector investment committed to large-scale solar PV farm projects in (a) 2014-15 and (b) 2015-16; and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of an early reduction in Renewables Obligation support on those levels of investment.

Gregory Barker

We do not hold data on the amount of private investment committed to large scale solar PV projects.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of reductions to Renewables Obligation support on the quality of solar farms.

Gregory Barker

The Government published the second part of our UK Solar PV Strategy Part 2 [1] on 4 April 2014. We made clear in that document that we are considering the implications of current trends of deployment in solar PV on the financial incentives available in Great Britain under the Renewables Obligation and small-scale Feed-in-Tariffs. We will issue a public consultation shortly proposing changes to financial support for solar PV.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-solar-pv-strategy-part-1-roadmap-to-a-brighter-future

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much solar PV was installed on roof-tops under the Renewables Obligation in (a) 2012, (b) 2013 and (c) 2014 to date.

Gregory Barker

Total UK solar PV capacity at the end of March 2014 was 2,941 MW. It is not currently possible to break down the data to indicate the proportion of that capacity that is installed on rooftops.

Source: Table ET 6.4, available at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-trends-section-6-renewables.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of contracts for difference auctioning on the quality of solar farms.

Gregory Barker

The eligibility criteria for solar farms under contracts for difference are set out in the Allocation Regulations. Any solar farm must meet these criteria in order to be able to apply for a CfD.

In April 2014 the Government published the Solar PV Strategy [1], which sets out that DECC will continue to work with industry, to promote industry best-practice for the development of solar farms.

[1]

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/302049/uk_solar_pv_strategy_part_2.pdf

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the total expenditure was on Renewables Obligation support in 2013; and what proportion of such support was given to solar power.

Gregory Barker

Renewable Obligation (RO) expenditure is calculated on a financial year basis. Total expenditure in 2012/13 was £1,991m.

The proportion of this support given to solar in 2012/13 can be calculated by dividing the number of RO certificates (ROCs) redeemed by suppliers originating from solar generation (20,932) by the total number of ROCs redeemed by suppliers (44,773,499). This gives a figure of 0.05%.

Source:

RO expenditure published in Ofgem’s 2012/13 RO annual report, available at:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications-and-updates/renewables-obligation-ro-annual-report-2012-2013

2012-13 ROCs redeemed by technology available at:

https://www.renewablesandchp.ofgem.gov.uk/Public/ReportManager.aspx?ReportVisibility=1&ReportCategory=0 (Compliance certificates report).

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Elliott on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the potential contribution of solar farms to the Government’s 2020 renewable energy target; and if he will make a statement.

Gregory Barker

As set out in the Solar PV Strategy, published in April 2013, solar PV is an important part of the UK’s energy mix. In the EMR delivery plan we estimated a total of between 10 and 12GW of solar photovoltaic across all scales would be installed by 2020. Of this we anticipate that 2.4-4GW will be large scale solar PV installations greater than 5MW.