PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Blair speech lacks PV specifics, but offers £100 million for renewables

Although UK Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to mention a hoped-for 70,000 solar roofs program during a major environmental policy speech on March 6, he did promise £100 million GPB ($144.5 million USD) to support renewable energy technologies for two years, starting in April 2002.

Speaking to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in London, Blair aimed his remarks directly at his audience, noting that »a number of green groups have been campaigning for a target of 100,000 solar PV installations,« exactly the number the WWF had called for last September (see PI 10/2000, p. 10). He said the promised funds would be used in part to »help us promote solar PV,« an industry which he predicted would be worth up to £150 billion ($216.8 billion) globally by 2010.

	© Eddie Parker, WWF
Blairing for PV: While UK Prime Minister Tony Blair made no mention of a 70,000 solar roofs program, he still sang the praises of PV at an environmental address to the WWF.

At the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the UK agency that disburses funds for renewable projects, James Marsh, manager of the solar and fuel cell program, could not say how much of the £100 million would be set aside for solar. That decision, he says, rests with the Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU), a cabinet-level group charged with determining which technologies will be prominent by 2050. A PIU report should be presented to Blair by September. »Certainly, from our perspective,« says Marsh, »we would hope some of that money would be going towards PV.«

Whatever the share for PV, Marsh says it would »dovetail« with the £10 million ($14.5 million) that the DTI announced in February it was making available for a three-year start-up phase to add PV installations to social housing as part of a re-roofing program (see PI 3/2001, p. 13 and PI 11/2000, p. 9). Marsh expects it will take a few months for the DTI to hammer out the details of how the funds, available to PV companies inside and outside of the UK, will be awarded. Despite telling PHOTON International last month that the UK was seriously considering a ten-year, 70,000 solar roofs program, Marsh now says the DTI will not be giving any targets »roofwise or moneywise.«

Jeremy Leggett, former director of Greenpeace International's Climate Campaign and now CEO of Solar Century, a UK-based systems integrator, who had been consulted by the Prime Minister's office prior to the policy address, says he was disappointed that the speech did not give specifics about a 70,000 solar roofs program. »It's not the instant breakthrough we had been hoping for,« says Leggett, »but there is plenty to play with.« Leggett, who says the government doesn't »seem capable collectively of being as decisive as the Germans and Japanese,« vows to keep the pressure on. »We're clearly making progress.« But he doesn't think the Blair government has done enough to entice PV manufacturers to set up shop in the UK. On the other hand, he is happy about the money for putting PV on social housing. In May, Solar Century and the UK's Housing Corporation will cosponsor a meeting about PV in London with 40 UK public housing associations. Solar Century has also agreed with the DTI to set up a training and accreditation program for PV installers to keep »the cowboys from coming in and messing up the market,« as apparently happened with solar thermal.

Department of Trade and Industry
James Marsh
phone +44/207/215-2652
mail: james.marsh@dti.gov.uk