The UK announces new feed-in tariffs and new oil and shale gas licences

The United Kingdom has announced new feed-in tariffs to be paid to renewable power plants as of January 2016: solar PV tariffs will range between £0.87p/kWh (€1.2c/kWh) for stand alone installations to £4.59p/kWh (€6.32c/kWh) for 10-50 kW installations (new tariff for domestic-scale solar of £4.39p /kWh, i.e. €6.04c/kWh), hydro feed-in tariffs will range between £4.43p/kWh (€6.1c/kWh) and £8.54p/kWh (€11.75c/kWh), while those for wind power will range between £0.86p/kWh (€1.18c/kWh) to £8.54p/kWh (€11.75c/kWh).

Tariffs will be cut every quarter, which will lead to a 19% cut for solar PV installations below 10 kW from January 2016 to the first quarter of 2019 (up to 80% cut for stand alone installations).

Deployment caps will be set to limit new spending on the scheme to £100m (€135m) up to the end of 2018-2019 (less than 61 MW each quarter for PV) and pre-accreditation will be reintroduced for solar PV and wind generators over 50kW and all hydro and anaerobic digestion generators.

In addition, the Renewable Obligation across Great Britain will close to new solar PV capacity at 5MW and below from 1 April 2016. The UK will remove the ‘grandfathering’ system (a fixed rate of support from the date of accreditation) from 22 July 2015 for solar projects in England and Wales with an exception for those which meet the significant financial commitment criteria as of 22 July 2015.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has awarded 132 new onshore oil and gas exploration licences, offering developers access to more land for shale gas fracking for the first time in seven years. INEOS won 21 new licences, while IGAS, Egdon Resources and Cuadrilla Resources also won licences.