The British Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on December 17th, 2015 announced its final decision on the new Feed-in Tariff rates for 2016 and beyond, just days after the historic Paris Agreement was agreed at the UN conference.
Paul Barwell, CEO of the Solar Trade Association (STA, Milton Keynes, UK), said: “Government has partially listened. It’s not what we needed, but it’s better than the original proposals, and we will continue to push for a better deal for what will inevitably be a more consolidated industry with fewer companies.”
Domestic solar installations up to 10kW in size will receive a feed-in tariff rate of 4.39p/kWh when the new rates come into force after the Department of Energy and Climate Change published the eagerly anticipated results of its consultation.
The new rates are as follows:
| Capacity | Feed-in tariff rate (p/kWh) |
| 0-10kW | 4.39 |
| 10-50kW | 4.59 |
| 50-250kW | 2.70 |
| 250kW-1000kW | 2.27 |
| >1MW | 0.87 |
| Stand alone | 0.87 |
The full consultation response also sets out how the new rates – based upon offering a return of 4.8% – are to be introduced.
While the amendment to the feed-in tariff order is to be laid today, given the Christmas recess the changes cannot come into effect until 8 February 2016. In order to protect the new budget allocation of £100 million, DECC has elected to enact a four-week pause on new feed-in tariff installations which will run from 15 January to 8 February 2016.
Any installation made between those dates will not be eligible for the previous rates and will receive the new 4.39p rate from 8 February onward. The first rate will run from 8 February to 31 March, after which degressions will begin to occur. The default quarterly degressions are as listed below.