Spanish regulators have suspended subsidies for 360 solar plants after they failed to prove their eligibility for the feed-in tariff. The sanctioning brings the number of projects punished by the regulators to 1,919 and concludes the investigation into fraudulent subsidy claims within the country’s solar industry.
Yet more uncertainty overshadowed Australia’s solar industry at the end of last week as the South Australian Government discussed the future of the state’s feed-in tariff. Having originally planned to increase the incentive rate from 44c to 54c, plus a mandatory additional contribution from electricity retailers, the Government is now tipped to keep the tariff at 44c until the end of September for solar households entering the scheme.
Suntech Power’s Just-Roof building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solution has been approved by French certification body CEIAB (Comité d'Evaluation de l'Intégration au Bâti). CEIAB is France’s official evaluation committee for all BIPV products, and its endorsement sees Just Roof gain eligibility for the country’s highest available feed-in-tariff.
A dramatic u-turn by German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been officially proclaimed with the announcement that all nuclear plants in the country will be shut down permanently by 2021. Initially, eight of Germany’s oldest nuclear plants will shut down immediately and the remaining plants will be phased out over the next 10 years. However, three plants could remain operational until 2022 to allow for the possibility of delays occurring in the addition of new energy sources - mainly renewables - as a replacement.
A common criticism of installing PV systems, large and small in Greece has been the bureaucratic red tape that had cased many projects to be delayed by several years, limiting the appeal of the country’s FiT and resulting in a standstill for most projects. According to BSW-Solar and PV LEGAL, concerted efforts to unwind the red tape, have had some significant success recently.
Bulgaria’s solar industry is facing the threat of stagnation, after the Government unveiled a new renewable energy bill that could cut industry subsidies by as much as 30%. The feed-in tariff (FiT) reductions were part of a wider set of cuts to the renewable sector, which have been introduced to help the country meet its EU 2020 targets.
After two months of uncertainty, the Italian Government finally looks set to unveil its much-anticipated new solar feed-in tariff bill. A draft decree of the Conto Energia IV bill is currently in circulation and includes legislation to reduce subsidies and introduce a 23GW cumulative cap until 2020, according to analysts at Germany’s Commerzbank.
The Italian Government is considering introducing an installed capacity cap for solar subsidies as part of its new renewable energy legislation, reports Reuters. If confirmed, this latest twist in the subsidy saga is a major blow to the industry and comes just six weeks after reports circulated that the government had dismissed plans to introduce an industry-wide 8GW.
Despite the latest report by the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) advising that the feed-in tariff rates in Australia’s Capital Territory (ACT) need to be reduced, the Territory’s Minister for Energy, Simon Corbell, said the rates would remain unchanged.
Spain’s Ministry for Industry has approved 923 new solar projects for Q1 2011, all of which will benefit from the current feed-in tariff rates. The 116MW of new installations have been endorsed just in time to avoid the government’s subsidy reductions that come into play from Q2.
