Feed in Tariffs review - what are we doing?

The recent announcement of another review of the solar pv feed in tariff by the Department of Energy and Climate Change has thrown many fledgling energy co-operatives' plans into disarray.

Although we recognise that something of a cut is realistic given the falling cost of installation, the speed and size of the proposed cut is deeply unhelpful to those energy co-ops which have spent months bringing plans to fruition. We know of one - Brighton Energy Co-operative - which has already announced a postponement of its share issue, and that others are having to make similar tough decisions.

If you're wondering what we are doing on this front, here's a quick overview:

1. We've signed a letter from Good Energy to the Prime Minister - you can download a copy of this below.


2. We've signed a similar letter from Friends of the Earth.


3. We're working closely with the Co-operative Group, which is throwing its weight behind supporting and campaigning for renewable energy through a Support Clean Energy campaign.


4. We're part of a number of policy groupings on energy, including one led by Friends of the Earth, on community energy, to ensure our work has a stronger impact and is linked with other groups.

In addition, funded by The Co-operative Group, we've been conducting some research into energy co-operatives. You can find information about this on our Sustainability and environment discussion group - the project is called 'Community Energy: co-operative solutions'. This provides valuable information for our lobbying work.

We've also release a report recently, 'A Co-operative Green Economy', which examines co-operative solutions to energy in the UK and overseas.

If you're involved in an energy co-op which is in membership of Co-operatives UK then we'll be in touch with you about our response to the Phase 1 FITs consultation. If you're not in membership and want to join our lobbying effort you can join here.

If you've got any questions about our policy and lobbying work, get in touch with John Goodman.

If you've got any questions about the Community Energy project, get in touch with Mary Rayner.