From the Front Line

The general reaction to the announcement of Feed-in Tariffs earlier this month - you get paid big money to generate your own electricity (more here) - has been almost overwhelmingly positive. Everyone I speak to agrees that the scheme - also known as the Clean Energy Cashback scheme - will revolutionise interest in installing previously onerous features such as Solar PV and even wind turbines.

I've been looking at the scheme in detail for a feature in an upcoming issue of the magazine - written by our eco expert Tim Pullen - but one thing that he's not alone in pointing out is that anyone who installed Solar PV etc. before June 2009 is getting really screwed over. The theory is that since they benefitted from a £2,500 installation grant, they will be able to enjoy little more than some cashback under the less-than-generous ROC scheme. Effectively, they'll be getting next to nothing while johnny-come-latelys will be enjoying up to 44p/kWh.

 As you might imagine, this hasn't gone down very well with people who installed before June - although installers between June 09 - April 10 will be laughing as they got both grant and generous tariff. I've even heard about threats to decommission their wind turbines in protest. More here.

It hasn't taken long for the Conservatives to see an opportunity and they have now promised to pay early adopters the full tariff. It's hardly going to be a key election issue, but I do think it is something that needs addressing.