Solar in Crisis? - I Think Not

Transition Dorking is not by nature a group with a tendency to make political comment. We seldom move off safe ground but now and again the need to stick our heads above the parapet becomes necessary.

Some of you may already be aware and possibly stunned by the proposals recently announced to drastically reduce subsidies for the UK Solar industry. This follows hot on the heels of the withdrawal of the green deal subsidy for home insulation (27 July) which in turn followed the decision to withdraw financial support to onshore windfarms (20 June), and this all in the run up to the end of year Paris climate summit which will attempt to seek agreement across all nations regarding global warming emissions targets.

Shocked by the announcements, TDSolarGroup – formed this year as part of Transition Dorking to promote and facilitate the take up of clean solar energy – has decided to react positively.

Subsidies were inevitably going to be completely removed and the solar business would need to survive without support. We were not expecting this to happen so quickly and savagely but with the industry busily engaged in a huge lobbying exercise we need to wait and see what the final decisions are.

Electricity generation is currently the biggest single source of CO2 emissions in the UK, responsible for approximately a third of the total, at a time when prices of solar panels are coming down and their efficiency is going up.

We believe we have an ethical obligation to do everything we possibly can to shift away from our dependence on fossil fuels. Towns and cities across the UK have for some while been uniting in community energy projects as people realise they like the idea of renewables and also love the notion of community ownership. A modern, cleaner and more sustainable way of living appeals to people across all ages, professions and political persuasions.

A leading example of this is Wadebridge in Cornwall, where there is an extremely active and thriving renewable energy organisation which has over 1,100 members. This has facilitated, amongst other renewable projects, the installation of around 100 domestic installations and two large community solar projects totaling 5.4 megawatts.

Here in Dorking the majority of people we have spoken to so far seemed very supportive of our aim to develop a community solar scheme and view it as you might colloquially call it a “no brainer”. We need a large body of people to help us so we are kindly asking you to register your support on this website by going to our 'contact us' page and we will keep you informed.