Ed Miliband stops funding for solar power

The Government have closed its grant programme for solar energy.

Part of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme provides grants for solar photovoltaic projects on public buildings. This has been so successful that the allocated share of the £50m for these projects has been used up. So what does the government do? Invest more money into the programme so that they can build on its success? No. It closes the scheme to new applications.

As the Renewable Energy Association’s Director General says “This latest disaster in the Low Carbon buildings Programme is completely at odds with the Green New Deal we hear so much about.”

Difficult not to agree. Given the climate crisis we face and the economic circumstances you would think that government should be going out of its way to support such an important and growing industry. Unfortunately we seem to have a Labour government incapable of making rational decisions.

We all know that if they hadn’t wasted £12.5bn on a VAT cut they could be funding more of this and other similar schemes. Just like Nick Clegg has proposed.

This content was originally posted on my old Process Guy blog.