Fit 2 PV solar panels now, more later?

[meadowhog]

This must be a wind up. Its OK for the government to hand out yours and my cash by the bucket load to undeserving so called political refugees murderers etc. but not to people who payed their taxes and in many cases the people who can afford PV have probably paid more tax into the system.

What this boils down to for your side of the fence is your belief that the poor off or those that cant afford and/or ' Im more holy than thou' people will pay for FiT. Do you really believe that is the only way of raising the funding for it.

If you are hanging onto the P.R.O.F.I.T phrase 'those that dont have it will be paying for it' a certain amount of gullability must be floating around.

 

[NamelessRob]

I prefer the morally correct path of creating jobs, cutting polution and having a better world for our children to grow up in.

How certain are you that solar panels cut pollution?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/18/chinese-solar-panel-factory-protest

Although solar is seen as clean energy in terms of carbon emissions, the production of many components is energy intensive and polluting. Toxic discharges from the factory killed large numbers of fish and regulators have previously ordered the company to suspend operations, according to the domestic media.

 

[JohnW2]

What this boils down to for your side of the fence is your belief that the poor off or those that cant afford and/or ' Im more holy than thou' people will pay for FiT. Do you really believe that is the only way of raising the funding for it.

Ultimately, yes, I would have said. I must be missing something, because I can't really see where else the funding could ultimately come from.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[meadowhog]

The government will take it from anyone of a number of taxes. If these energy companies put their prices up it will open a gap for another competitor to step in. Does all road tax go into maintaining roads, No.

The only thing taht annoys me about this whole thing as far I can see is the panels are not made by British companies so a large finacial proportion of an expensive product is going out of the country.

At the end of the day, I do believe this scheme is designed to fill quoters and the green innitiative off the ground, so if you dont take it up someone else will have to. If I could afford it I would fill my roof and take my chances. I certainly wont spend any time feeling like a victim because I cant.

 

[flameport]

The government will take it from anyone of a number of taxes. If these energy companies put their prices up it will open a gap for another competitor to step in. Does all road tax go into maintaining roads, No

FITs have nothing to do with taxes or the government.

They are not paid for by the government.
They are not funded from taxation.

The payments are made by energy companies, who rather obviously get the money from their customers.
Unless energy companies suddenly decide to cut their profits and/or make losses, the end result is higher prices for electricity.

There won't be any 'gap' for competitors to move in with lower prices either, since the payments for FITs are spread across all energy companies in a complex sharing mechanism, and the actual net profits on supplying gas and electricity to domestic customers are far smaller than you might imagine.
http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/RetMkts/rmr/Documents1/Supply_Market_Report_March2011.pdf

 

[JohnW2]

FITs have nothing to do with taxes or the government. They are not paid for by the government. They are not funded from taxation. The payments are made by energy companies, who rather obviously get the money from their customers. Unless energy companies suddenly decide to cut their profits and/or make losses, the end result is higher prices for electricity.

Exactly.

Kind Regards, John.

 

[meadowhog]

Sorry I cant open the link.

Why on earth would energy companies give their customers the means of producing their own energy? Why has FiT been associated with the government? It doesnt sit right with me.

 

[bernardgreen]

Look up "carbon credits". For every unit of "green" electricity produced the producer ( or their agent ) is granted a "carbon credit" as an encouragement to "go green". These can be traded on the markets to companies who are not making green electricity.

 

[EFLImpudence]

The whole con that things are better for the planet is just another capitalist smoke screen (carbon-free of course).

Take white goods, for example; because they are made in a country where labour costs are low we can buy them cheaply.
When they go wrong it is cheaper to buy replacements than repair them.
So another one has to be manufactured, using more resources, albeit some of them recycled, but this uses huge amounts of additional energy produced, likely, from fossil fuels plus the cost of transport all around the world using more fossil fuels.

Had the products been manufactured here, they may cost more to buy in the first place but it would then be economical to repair them - leading to even more jobs 'at home' for service engineers in addition to the original factory jobs and so more tax revenue.

Confusion arises because there are firms which move production abroad but still charge the same price as when they were made here, just greed, Dyson springs to mind - a ludicrous price for a ludicrous vacuum cleaner.
Numatic (Henrys) still manufacture in Chard and the products are far better and a lot cheaper.

Having said that, I will concede that for decades - especially in the seventies when the unions were blamed for everything - British management has been crap.

 

[meadowhog]

What I meant was that the Government is free to pass any new legislation it wishes, at any time, so it could pass legislation to cancel all FIT contracts.

No previous legislation could prevent that because no previous laws are allowed to impinge on the freedom of Parliament.

Yes - they might face legal challenges, but again it is not easy for the courts to frustrate the will of Parliament.

There doesn't seem to be any history of FiT being reversed contractually

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-ma...f-sparks-solar-industry-response.html[/QUOTE]

This tells me its about the government.


And carbon credits can be traded, so the supplier gets paid by someone else so it doesnt have to put up the price of energy?