Late on Friday night Ofgem published the revised Feed in Tariff rates that will apply to all non-solar technology from April 2014.

As expected the full 20% degression rate has been applied to all on-shore wind categories.  This will not help a sector plagued by increasing planning delays and red tape and will make good siting of turbines absolutely key for any successful development.  It will be interesting to see what manufacturers do to soften the blow for developers as many marginal sites will not take this hit in support and remain viable.

The announcement for broad cuts to AD has come before the full outcome of a review promised before Christmas by Greg Barker. Membership organisations have lobbied that  larger projects above 500kW make up nearly all of the deployment figures for AD and that virtually no 250kW projects have yet been developed.  The outcome of this review is eagerly awaited to see if small scale developments are handed a lifeline.

The deployment triggers that were included in the legislation have been pretty well recognised across the board.  With the recent EU 2030 targets set out and the lack of binding renewable energy requirements on member states has Mr Cameron truly started his cut of the ‘Green C*&p’?  Its difficult to see any improvements in support for renewable energy projects in the short term – the glass is definitely half empty.