As part of its Spending Review, the Government has announced that the first review of the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) will be undertaken. Will this see a U-turn in the Government's commitment to promoting green energy?

Figures released by Ofgem show the number of PV installations completed since the Feed-in Tariff scheme (FIT) started in April 2010. In the first full year there were 28,610 installations in the UK, the vast majority, 28,023, being on residential properties. The remaining 600ish were split between commercial, industrial and community buildings. Residential installations totalled just over 73 megawatts (MW) of capacity, an average of 2.61kW per property (that’s 11-14 PV panels average). That’s an investment of about £375million, though prices have fallen since the scheme started.

The Histon and Impington Village Energy Project (HIVEP) was the brainchild of Ken Doyle, editor of the HI Courier, the free local newspaper serving the two villages. Ken has been a solar enthusiast for years and started the idea of a village collaboration in 2010, encouraging readers to register their interest in PV with him so that he could group numbers together and negotiate a price and service package with a supplier.

Rob Meehan joined the sales team at Beechdale Energy today, turning a long-time interest in solar energy and green technologies into a new career.