Leeds put solar panel project on hold

A major project that would have given council tenants free electricity has been put on hold by Leeds City Council.

The council was planning to install a minimum of 1,000 solar panel systems on suitable council owned homes, giving tenants free daytime electricity. The project was made possible by the government’s ‘feed-in tariff’ – a payment made for every unit of electricity generated by renewable technology, like solar panels, for 25 years.

However last week the government started a consultation on plans to halve the feed-in tariff in December 2011 which is a much bigger reduction and which is being made much sooner than an already planned reduction in April 2012.

This means that the council won’t receive the feed-in tariff it expected and it won’t be enough to pay back the project’s funders.

The council’s partners had agreed to buy the solar panels and pay to install and maintain them on suitable council owned homes for the next 25 years. The feed-in tariff was to be used to pay back partners for these costs. Any money left over would have been used in other local projects to make homes more energy efficient.

It was estimated that the project would save tenants around £120 a year on their electricity bills and make a significant dent in the 29 per cent of emissions that come from Leeds’ homes.

Neil Evans, director for environment and neighbourhoods said: “The proposals in the government’s consultation means our solar panel project is no longer viable.

“The consultation does mention that the government are considering if more could be done to enable genuine community projects. If this could be applied to our project, we may still be able to go ahead. But this depends on details yet to be announced so we’ve reluctantly put the project on hold indefinitely.”

The council has already written to around 2,900 tenants who live in potentially suitable homes.
He continued: “We had begun contacting tenants to ensure that the project would run smoothly and meet the original timescales for feed-in tariffs changing in April 2012.

“As the change is coming much sooner than anyone had anticipated, we now, regrettably, have the task of writing to tenants again to let them know that surveys and installations are not going ahead.

“It’s disappointing to be the bearer of such bad news but we will continue our work to improve energy efficiency in council homes and buildings across the city.”