Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between David Warburton and Andrea Leadsom

Thursday 7th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[David Warburton (Somerton and Frome) (Con)]

T2. Given the revisions to the feed-in tariffs that will shortly come into force, has the Minister made any assessment of the likely effects on the solar industry, particularly in the south-west, where the sun nearly always shines?

[The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Andrea Leadsom)]

Of course, my hon. Friend is absolutely right—the sun nearly always shines there. It is a great place for solar, which has been a spectacular success there. The tariffs aim to give generators with well-sited projects appropriate rates of return, so around 5% for solar. We believe that that will save bill payers between £380 million and £430 million a year by 2021, while at the same time enabling up to 220,000 new installations to be subsidised under the new feed-in tariff.