Energy Secretary Amber Rudd claims that renewable energy "can stand on its own two feet" and that therefore the removal of subsidies is justified. Well, maybe Amber but chop and change management of those subsidies does nothing for the industry's confidence and certainly nothing for investment planning. Look at what happened to the Mark Group. They were so badly burned by the sudden virtual disappearance of insulation schemes that they had to go to the market and find a fairy godmother. Now that fairy godmother has called in the receivers because Mark's hoped-for new business, solar power, is no longer viable. Now I suspect that there is, or has been, underlying poor management at Mark but perhaps Amber might like to go around the 1000 or so Mark employees who have been made redundant and explain to them the cost competitiveness of green energy.
What La Rudd appears not to appreciate is that there is an urgent need to switch away from CO2 producing energy sources. Possibly the best way of engineering that would be the imposition of realistic carbon taxes. However, in the absence of anything meaningful in that direction, renewable energy subsidies had a similar effect.
One could accuse Rudd of loosing the plot but I suspect she never had it in the first place!
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