Carl Sargeant, Natural Resources Minister in the Welsh Assembly is warning that schemes like the Abergwyngregyn hydro scheme are unlikely to ever get built in the future if the recent Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) proposals to change the process for application to Feed-in Tariffs are introduced.

Under the DECC proposals to change the Feed-in Tariff accreditation, developers won’t know what tariff they would receive when they begin to develop a project.

Speaking at a visit to the Abergwyngregyn hydro scheme Carl Sargeant said the proposed changes will undermine investor confidence in future community renewable energy schemes.

Carl Sargeant said:

“The Abergwyngregyn scheme was able to be built because it was based on sound finance and investor confidence. The alarming proposals by DECC will make it harder for companies to attract investment into low carbon, renewable technologies.”

Carl Sargeant said he and his counterpart in Scotland, Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism Fergus Ewing have written a joint letter to DECC to reiterate their strength of feeling about the importance of support for renewable energy.

“Community energy is a key priority for both our governments and we feel very strongly that those communities who have invested heavily, in time, money and commitment, in a cleaner energy future, are deserving of this consideration,” he said.

“We both see that the future direction for energy is one of local generation and supply, based on renewable sources, and smart storage and local grid management, with significant local benefit.  The current proposals will significantly damage the prospects for this future if the local ownership and benefits of projects are not considered within the support regime.

“Schemes like the Abergwyngregyn hydro scheme bring significant economic, social and environmental benefits to communities and the DECC proposals will make it much harder for communities to benefit from local renewable energy opportunities in the future”, he added.