UK Not Showing Solar Much Love

Subsidies for solar installation have been cut by 50% in England, a country that already lags in energy efficiency.

England justified the cut, explaining that a costly planning hurdle was removed from the installation process, therefore lowering the cost of installing solar overall. Solar systems are also becoming cheaper as they become more mainstream. Solar justifies its own costs in a matter of years, and even faster as fossil fuel prices increase.

NGOs explain that the move is counter to the advice of both England’s renewable energy industries as well as their own governmental policy recommendations. Policy advocates see the move as making an inadequate program even worse. Despite the country, it is almost universally understood that renewable markets need governmental support to compete with financially entrenched fossil industries that benefit from billions in subsidies annually from countries across the globe. Until fossil fuels get genuinely too expensive, governments need to either incentivize consumers through rebates, a price floor on fossil fuels, or tax benefits. Or all three.

England is third worst for the number of home solar systems in the EU. Germany, for example, has 200 times the solar power than England does. Only 2% of England’s energy is solar, putting it behind the U.S.

Read more at the BBC.