Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to her oral contribution of 2 March 2016 to the Ninth Delegated Legislation Committee on the draft Renewables Obligation Closure Etc. (Amendment) Order 2016, what the evidential basis is for the statement that, with reference to the solar industry, it is not true to say that there are thousands of job losses and that there will be thousands more.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
We see a strong future for solar PV in the UK.
In order to support the path to subsidy-free solar deployment, we have decided to keep the Feed-in-Tariff scheme open, and expect that the scheme could support 15,000-23,000 jobs in the sector. There will continue to be jobs in the operation and maintenance of existing solar installations.
We also expect subsidy-free solar to be an increasingly attractive option. Lightsource, the biggest solar developer in the UK, have said publically that they will be installing and connecting subsidy-free sites in 2016.
Support for solar comes directly from people's bills, so when costs come down, so should support. Therefore we have taken steps to control the costs of support schemes and put solar on a path to delivering without subsidy.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will estimate the change in the number of jobs that will be lost in the solar industry as a result of the early closure of the renewables obligation.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not maintain data on the number of jobs in the solar industry. In order to support the path to subsidy-free solar deployment, we have decided to keep the Feed-in-Tariff scheme open, and expect that the scheme could support 15,000-23,000 jobs in the sector.
We expect subsidy-free solar to be an increasingly attractive option. Lightsource, the biggest solar developer in the UK, have said publically that they will be installing and connecting subsidy-free sites in 2016.
Asked by: Melanie Onn (Labour - Great Grimsby)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the change in the number of jobs in the solar industry has been since May 2015.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change does not maintain data on the number of jobs in the solar industry. In order to support the path to subsidy-free solar deployment, we have decided to keep the Feed-in-Tariff scheme open, and expect that the scheme could support 15,000-23,000 jobs in the sector.
We expect subsidy-free solar to be an increasingly attractive option. Lightsource, the biggest solar developer in the UK, have said publically that they will be installing and connecting subsidy-free sites in 2016.