Press Release

9^th February 2012, London -Today HomeSun, the UK’s leading free-solar company, commented on the publication of the Government’s response to phase 1 of the FIT review consultation.

HomeSun CEO, Daniel Green, said: “In today’s announcement the new so called ‘Aggregator’ (multi-installation) tariff includes companies who provide Free Solar to individual, private home-owners.

“DECC justified this new lower tariff by saying that companies who own many installations have economies of scale – only having to deal with one multi-home owning landlord and being able to install several homes on the same street on the same day. However, this is simply not true for Free Solar for private, individual homes and DECC knows it.

“We agree with DECC and accept multi-home owning landlords should have a lower tariff but why punish the majority of the population who don’t have multiple homes and don’t have thousands of pounds to invest for years in a solar purchase? These people, who are struggling with their energy bills and are looking for some relief from the Big Energy companies have been deliberately excluded without reason.

“Solar will now become the exclusive plaything of the wealthy who live in the south of England.”

Claire Rogers from Hampshire has a Free Solar panel system on the home she shares with her elderly parents. “Without the free electricity from the panels, my parents would sit in a cold house all day because they would not turn on the central heating for worry about high bills. It is shock to think that if the multi-installation tariff comes in, someone like me would not have been able to get solar panels,” says Claire.

“We call on Ed Davey and DECC to create a fair and just FIT by removing Free Solar providers for separate, individual homeowners from the multi-installation tariff.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

·         Economies of scale can be applied to consolidators that undertake large housing projects, landlords and people who own many homes because they have only one sale to make and can install on many homes in one day. Then there are companies that supply Free Solar systems to separate, individual private homeowners – this type of company doesn’t benefit from economies of scale because:

-          Free Solar installations are rarely in geographic proximity and cannot be installed as part of a planned work schedule

-          Free solar suppliers are hit with an additional 7% of costs due to paperwork such as conveyancing

-          Each Free Solar customer needs a separate customer relationship with its associated administration costs

-          Unlike the private buyer of solar, the Free Solar provider pays corporation tax on income/profit and has financing and administrative costs

-          The Free Solar provider passes the energy savings onto the customer and gives up the right to any free electricity itself

·         On the EPC requirement:

-          100% of homes are eligible for the full FIT right now. By the Government’s own admission in its FITs Impact Assessment, the new proposals mean that only 9% of homes would be eligible and only a fraction of those will have a suitable roof for solar PV.

-          The joint Energy and Climate Change and Environmental Audit Committees’ Solar Power Feed-in Tariffs report says “the choice of energy efficiency requirement option by the Government could have a fatal impact on the take-up of the [FITs] scheme after 2012” and it quotes Which? in saying “Insulation is essential to ensure the value of heat; it is not for electricity unless the householder is using electrical heating.”

·         The Government has already lain before Parliament draft licence modifications that, subject to the Parliamentary process, will bring a 21p FIT into effect from 1^st April for Solar PV installations which become eligible for FITs after midnight 2^nd March.

·         The Government’s premature action before Christmas created a massive spike in solar installations between 31^st October and 12^th December, which has ended up costing the FIT budget £100 million. A graph illustrating this spike has been published by DECC and is available on request.

About HomeSun

HomeSun, the solar specialist, has been making it easy for thousands of homeowners to generate their own energy with Free Solar and SolarShare, with free maintenance for 25 years.

HomeSun led the legal challenge against the Government over its mismanagement of the consultation on the Feed-in Tariff comprehensive review Phase 1. This resulted in both a Judicial Review and The Court of Appeal finding unlawful the Government’s action of placing a ‘reference date’ eleven days before the end of consultation period. The Government has stated that it is now seeking permission to appeal in the Supreme Court and has until 22^nd February to submit its request for permission.

HomeSun has a big vision that is almost breathtakingly simple: we want to make home renewable energy commonplace, starting with Solar PV. At HomeSun, we’d like to think that homes that aren’t self-sufficient in some way will be the odd ones out, not the other way round. So, we are going to use our commitment and business ingenuity to break down barriers of price and confusing complexity, and to make it easy for homes to generate their own energy. Energy that is clean, that saves people money, improves their homes' value and cuts carbon emissions.

For more information, please visit www.homesun.com

Press Contact

Mary Burtt

HomeSun Public Relations Manager

Tel: 020 8782 1187

Mobile: 07808 130 377

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)