Revamped solar industry body prepares for subsidy scrap
Re-jigged Solar Trade Association brings together 400 members from PV and solar thermal sectors.
The two largest trade bodies representing the UK solar industry are to combine memberships, creating a 400-member organisation supporting both solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) technologies.
The new body will bring together the 33-year-old Solar Trade Association (STA) with members of the Renewable Energy Association’s (REA) Solar Power Group under the banner of a relaunched STA, creating the largest solar trade body in the UK.
Both parties said the timing of the move, coming as the industry faces threats from the government that its subsidies will be significantly cut, was designed to ensure that the sector presents a unified voice to ministers.
The government’s earlier-than-expected review of feed-in tariffs, blamed on as escalation in large, ground-mounted solar farms, has threatened to fragment the solar industry as competition for subsidies heats up between commercial and microgeneration projects.
REA chief executive Gaynor Hartnell was sufficiently worried to warn members in a letter last month that “squabbling” over which type of solar most deserved support would “do the industry no good”.
Today, she said the revamped STA would create a strong, unified voice for the industry, combining the REA’s expertise in policy with the STA’s understanding of project deployment.
“Having won the feed-in tariffs, which fired the starting gun for PV in the UK, we’re keen to catch up with our European neighbours,” she said. “With the solar tariffs now under review, and the continued delay to the heat incentive, we need unity more than ever before.”
Hartnell added that several “big players” including Sharp Solar and LDK Solar had expressed an interest in joining the new organisation.
Andrew Lee of Sharp said: “We welcome the news that two well-respected trade bodies are merging to form one association, which allows for a more powerful and organised voice for our solar PV industry at a time when we need to ensure that the investments made now will deliver a strong and stable market place for the future.”
The two largest trade bodies representing the UK solar industry are to combine memberships, creating a 400-member organisation supporting both solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) technologies.
The new body will bring together the 33-year-old Solar Trade Association (STA) with members of the Renewable Energy Association’s (REA) Solar Power Group under the banner of a relaunched STA, creating the largest solar trade body in the UK.
Both parties said the timing of the move, coming as the industry faces threats from the government that its subsidies will be significantly cut, was designed to ensure that the sector presents a unified voice to ministers.
The government’s earlier-than-expected review of feed-in tariffs, blamed on as escalation in large, ground-mounted solar farms, has threatened to fragment the solar industry as competition for subsidies heats up between commercial and microgeneration projects.
REA chief executive Gaynor Hartnell was sufficiently worried to warn members in a letter last month that “squabbling” over which type of solar most deserved support would “do the industry no good”.
Today, she said the revamped STA would create a strong, unified voice for the industry, combining the REA’s expertise in policy with the STA’s understanding of project deployment.
“Having won the feed-in tariffs, which fired the starting gun for PV in the UK, we’re keen to catch up with our European neighbours,” she said. “With the solar tariffs now under review, and the continued delay to the heat incentive, we need unity more than ever before.”
Hartnell added that several “big players” including Sharp Solar and LDK Solar had expressed an interest in joining the new organisation.
Andrew Lee of Sharp said: “We welcome the news that two well-respected trade bodies are merging to form one association, which allows for a more powerful and organised voice for our solar PV industry at a time when we need to ensure that the investments made now will deliver a strong and stable market place for the future.”
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