Friday
Oct282011
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Dealing with overFITing
Oct 28, 2011 Energy: solar Representatives of the solar industry are apparently to march on Downing Street to protest that their subsidy is being cut.
Members of the solar sector are preparing to stage a protest calling on the prime minister to intervene to block anticipated plans to halve feed-in tariff (FIT) incentives for solar installations, which they fear will "kill off" the fast-expanding industry.
The new Cut Don't Kill campaign, founded by a coalition of 20 major companies from across the solar industry, is planning to hold a march next month calling on David Cameron to halt controversial plans to slash subsidies for small-scale PV installations.
Perhaps readers can suggest some slogans for these poor oppressed souls to shout at Dave and Nick.
Reader Comments (66)
"Convert Soros money to solar cells !"
If the great prophet Al Gore has a solar roof (http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/06/al_gore_gets_a.php), then we all must have one.
How else can we save the polar bears!
With apologies to ABBA...
"Sunny sunny money,
Flippin' funny,
in a FIT mans world"
Play in the sun too long and you are going to get burned. I would love to see some street vendors selling sun block at the rent seeking PV protest.
FIT to fail ?
There were a few choice word uttered in our household when the following was read out this morning:-
"Alex Lockton, managing director of Freesource Energy, said: "We can live with a 50pc cut in the tariff but, if the December deadline is true, we urge the Government to reconsider the timing, which is going to cause short-term chaos across the solar industry."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/8856365/Renting-out-roof-to-solar-power-firms-could-make-your-home-harder-to-sell-surveyors-warn.html
What a mind blowing statement "We can live with a 50pc cut in the tariff", can't we all? Especially those who do not have a large south facing roof!
All FITs do is guarantee a 25 year long index linked revenue stream to pay bonuses for salesmen and directors.
"We can live with a 50pc cut in the tariff" - maybe they should go and chant that!
'Well we want our FITS from the taxpayer
'Cos our panels need to sell
No sun at night..? We can put that right
With diesel - what the hell...!
We got a li'l ol' Convoy
To Downing Street we'll drive
Ignore the 'Frackin' Convoy
Solar must be made to thrive...
(with massive apologies to C W McCall and the brilliant 'Convoy'....)
Are they planning to have a FIT girl to add a little glamour to their campaign? On second thoughts, that might be deemed as causing global warming.
If they arry a few tents with them the BBC's "science" reporters can be guaranteed to give neasrly as much coverage to this as to the "Occupy" prats and hundreds of times more to the larger demonstration for an EU referendum. This is known as the BBC's commitment to "balance".
Another scheme to rob the poor to pay the rich (a.k.a. Overseas Aid) might be about to bite the dust.
'Instal a solar panel and freeze a pensioner to death'
It's really terrible, all you nasty deniers being beastly to the poor old solar panelistas.
You've got to feel for them, sold down the river, stabbed in the back, ripped-off, pitched on to the scrapheap, consigned to the dustbin of history..............sorry, I can't keep this up, I'm laughing too much!
The best slogan they could use would be we will bring you sunshine!
If they could promise us that then they would deserve the subsidies - unless the promise turned out to be moonshine!
Josh (#2) has it. As always, he goes to the heart (meat? ... whatever) of the matter.
For those who have "bided" in the granite city of Old Aberdeen, the expression "fit" can be used in the context of "fit like", as in "how are you doing?"
This is actually part of the Doric language. Info on Wiki here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doric_dialect_%28Scotland%29
Probably, for most, this is a completely useless factoid.
Pretty much like solar panels really,
Especially in Aberdeen.
Some more details at
http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/news/national-news/122739-consumers-and-industry-react-with-fury-to-leaked-feed-in-tariff-cut-plans.html
In particular
"The Government says it is moving forward the tariff cut after the first phase of its Comprehensive review found that, since the scheme started, the global costs of PV panels have fallen significantly.
It says this, combined with other factors, has meant that the returns available from PV are now far higher than originally intended. Originally the plan was to provide generators with a rate of return of around 5-8%. Actual returns were much higher - around 10%. The Government's plan will now mean a rate of return of 4%."
In other words - when the scheme was launched, the FIT was too generous. Those who have £6k to £15k are making extraordinary returns, at the expense of those who do not. Also these feed-in tariffs are index- linked and guaranteed for 25 years. With inflation at 5% and rising, this still looks a good deal for investment.
The PM's taken all my dough
And left me in my stately home
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
And I can't sail my yacht
He's taken everythin' I've got
All I've got's this sunny afternoon
Save me, save me
Save me from this squeeze
I've got a big fat momma tryin' to break me
And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime, in the summertime
In the summertime
(apologies to the Kinks)