Alan Simpson criticizes UK government energy policy

At an event organized by Solar Century, a UK-based solar company, MP Alan Simpson had made his eye-opening claims that an energy cartel is actively hindering the country’s fight against climate change by lobbying for its own commercial interests at the expense of the development of green energy.

The recent Solar Century event was aimed to lobby for a raise on the planned feed-in tariff, the amount of money paid for electricity sold by households through wind turbines and solar panels. Next April, the UK government will propose feed-in tariffs of 5p a unit, in addition to a subsidy of 36.5p per unit produced off-grid in small wind and solar-powered installations.

Simpson disputed that these levels will only provide five to seven per cent investment return, which is not sufficient to get going UK’s solar energy industry. He however suggested for a minimum 10p feed-in tariffs to generate a 10 per cent return.

The MP further called for a decentralized energy generation system that allows homes and local areas to produce their own electricity. Simpson highlighted that UK’s present power policy is dominated by the interests of ‘Big Power’, the six biggest electric generation companies in the UK.

Sceptics said that the reason behind Simpon’s outspoken attitude during the gathering was that he is expecting to be voted out from politics few months from now. However, Simpon’s political record shows that he had constantly criticized the UK government’s energy policy. He is also one of the few British MPs willing to put his personal money to support green projects.