UK Small Turbine Industry is Being Killed Off

The UK’s small wind turbine manufactures are saying that they will lose out to foreign solar panel manufactures in the race to cash in on the UK government’s new feed in tariff scheme. They go on to claim that their products will be penalized, because solar panel owners will receive higher government subsidies than wind turbine buyers. Right now, as the arrangement stands, a wind turbine would qualify for 26.7 to 34.5 per Kwh in government subsidies. However, solar panels would typically bring in 41p per Kwh.

These turbine manufactures will also have to pay a fee of up to £100,000 in order to have their models certified for the scheme. They argue that planning rules make it harder for customers to get approval for turbines in the first place. The tariff, known as the Clean Energy Cashback, which is due to come into effect as of April 1^st, will actually offer home owners a government subsidy for installing small scale renewable energy technology. This includes things like solar panels and wind turbines.

The head of small systems at RenewableUK, Alex Murley, said that small wind is the only microgeneration technology which UK manufactures dominate the market for. If the government does not get this right, then everyone could end up shooting themselves in the foot and killing off the UK’s success story.

RenewableUK said that planning applications for small wind turbines have transitionally taken up to 14 months to process. Britain’s oldest surviving small wind manufacture, Ampair, has accused some local authorities of systematically rejecting applications. The government has promised to allow households to install small turbines without planning permission starting in June. However, Ampair still thinks this planning allowance is too limited, because it restricts domestic wind turbines to a hub height of 10 meters and a 2.2 meter blade.