The UK Feed in Tariff
Although PV technology has fallen significantly in price and increased in efficiency over the past ten years, it is still relatively expensive . Solar PV installations are very common across Europe, with many large scale ground based schemes (some with over 200,000 panels!) being installed over the past 5 years. Although many areas of Europe are better for Solar PV than the UK, due to the sunlight levels, the main reason that the technology has achieved such widespread success are the European Government subsidies/grants that have been available.
In April 2010, the UK Government introduced the Feed in Tariff (FiT) in a move to bring the UK in line with the rest of Europe. Under the FiT, many renewable energy technologies, including Solar PV, benefit from an incentive whereby all power produced from qualifying schemes attracts a payment (in pence/kWh). The level of the incentive varies depending upon scheme size and technology. The aim of the FiT is to move the UK towards being a low carbon economy.
In the case of Solar PV, the FiT originally applied to schemes up to 5MW. However, the UK Government has since amended the scheme and now it effectively only covers projects up to 50kW.
The FiT and the level of incentives are currently under review and will change in April 2012.
For more information on the FiT, follow the link to the DECC site, provided in our useful links section.