Industry slams coalition over microgeneration confusion

"Needs to try much, much harder" – that is the verdict on the coalition government's microgeneration strategy contained in the first end-of-term appraisal from the UK's Micropower Council.

The trade group today called upon David Cameron to intervene personally to put an end to inter-departmental squabbling over microgeneration policy, which the organisation says is contributing to job losses and causing investors to flee the UK small-scale renewables sector.

The report claims that the Treasury is blocking the wishes of energy and climate change ministers Chris Huhne and Greg Barker to introduce a key policy that will encourage millions of householders to install renewable heating systems such as ground source heat pumps and solar hot water heaters.

It also blames the "civil service machine" for causing ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) to break the law, by failing to comply with an Act of Parliament that required it to introduce a policy by 12 July 2010 to exempt air-source heat pumps and small-scale wind turbines from the need to apply for planning permission.

"The valiant attempts of Chris Huhne and Greg Barker at the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to make progress on microgeneration policy are constantly being thwarted by the Treasury and by the machine taking over from ministers in policy making at Defra and CLG," said Dave Sowden, chief executive of the Micropower Council. "This is distorting the market, costing jobs, spooking entrepreneurs, and causing investors to flee."

He added that the industry was growing increasingly frustrated at the government's failure to provide further information on the proposed Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, which is designed to mirror the existing feed-in tariff scheme for heat-generating technologies and was scheduled to come into effect next April.

"Almost 130 members of parliament have called on the government to confirm the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive for microgeneration," he said. "Ministers in DECC have been inundated with briefings (including at least one established company implementing 40 per cent cuts in its salary bill) and urgent requests for clarity on this key policy before this industry starts to fall apart. Despite this, the Treasury's iron shutters remain down."

A DECC spokesperson declined to provide further details on the fate of the Renewable Heat Incentive, but insisted that the government remains committed to supporting the microgeneration industry.

"We are always keen to hear views from industry," they said. "The government wants to see what more it can do to help develop microgeneration, create more job opportunities, and make sure customers can trust the green technology they buy."

Government figures suggest that up to seven million homes could have some form of microgeneration technology installed by 2020, making the sector an important contributor to EU targets for renewable energy and CO2 emission reductions.