Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, announced today that from next week Councils across Britain will be allowed to sell renewable electricity to the grid. He is sending letters to all local authorities.
At present only 0.01% of electricity in England is generated by local authority-owned renewables, despite teh scope that exists to install projects on their land and buildings.
At present, local authorities are able to put any renewable electricity generated to local use – and to benefit from the associated feed-in tariff for projects smaller than 5MW – but they are restricted from selling any excess into the grid. The only exception being electricity generated from combined heat and power. Evidently the restriction is a 1989 amendment to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 which was put in place at the time of electricity privatisation to ensure the transfer of the electricity industry to the private sector.
I am pleased that the coalition government is committed to encouraging community-owned renewable energy schemes – where local people benefit from the power produced. The coalition government is actively working on proposals to allow communities that host renewable energy projects to keep the additional business rates they generate.
In advance of a visit to Working Borough Council, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary said: “This is a vital step to making community renewable projects commercially viable, to bring in long-term income to benefit local areas and to secure local acceptance for low carbon energy projects”.
