CONCERNED constituents had their renewable energy worries put to the Energy Minister in Parliament today (Nov 19) by Chippenham MP Michelle Donelan.

Speaking in the House of Commons, after receiving letters from a number of worried constituents, the Conservative MP spoke about concerns regarding a fall in subsidies for the solar industry.

Miss Donelan said she feared that an 87 per cent overnight drop in feed-in subsidies for solar energy producers would hit local jobs and growth in Wiltshire.

As a supporter of the renewable energy sector, she has also written to the Secretary of State for Energy, Amber Rudd MP, with her concerns.

The move has been welcomed by Chippenham-based renewable energy company, Good Energy.

In her letter she expresses her concerns on the amount of agricultural land being lost to solar farms and how she would, instead, prefer to see them on large buildings like supermarkets, schools and warehouses.

In the House of Commons today, she said: “People who work in the industry fully understand the need for it to be sustainable but they do feel that an 87 per cent drop in feed-in subsidies overnight is more than the industry can cope with in terms of local jobs and growth.”

In her response, Andrea Leadsom MP, Minister of State for Energy, said that her department would be looking very carefully at the more than 55,000 responses to the consultation on Feed-In tariffs.

Juliet Davenport, chief executive of Chippenham-based Good Energy, said: “It’s great to see Michelle Donelan’s support for solar and her acknowledgement of its important role in helping the UK reach its renewable energy targets.

“The Feed in Tariff has transformed the way the UK generates its power over the last three years and today, small-scale solar installations are enabling 700,000 homes across Great Britain to generate their own power.

“Ending support for solar means that schools, farms, homes and whole communities will find it much tougher to generate their own clean, local electricity and will be reliant on the same old-fashioned utility companies that they should be moving away from.”