“We welcome today’s announcement on the future of feed-in tariffs,” said Cathy Debenham, founder of YouGen.

“This announcement provides clarity for both industry and consumers going forward, and ends the speculation and uncertainty that has been so damaging.

“The 16p rate to be introduced from 1 August still offers attractive returns for potential microgenerators (see calculations here: http://bit.ly/Kkav9k).  However, it will not be the easy sell it was at the end of last year when feed-in tariff rates were sky high, and people were buying on rate of return alone.

“Now that the government has provided a clear framework for the future of the feed-in tariff, it’s time for the industry to get more sophisticated in its marketing, and make potential buyers aware of the broad range of ways that they can benefit from solar PV.”

Notes to Editors

YouGen (http://www.yougen.co.uk) aims to make it easy for people to improve the energy efficiency of their home, find information on renewable energy and locate a trustworthy local installer. YouGen is a community based website where people can:

l  Work out whether a technology is suitable for them
l  Ask an energy expert a question
l  See what other people have done, and learn from their experience
l  Find a recommended local supplier (or help others by recommending theirs)
l  Keep up to date with what’s new in energy efficiency and renewable energy

This response is to DECCs press release Certainty for Solar.