Ed Miliband has submitted an amendment to the Energy Bill to increase the size of the proposed cap on renewable energy feed-in tariffs to 5MW.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change told New Energy Focus that the move had been taken to give the government more flexibility in its use of the feed-in tariff to support community renewable electricity projects.

The surprise move comes as the Bill moves towards its conclusion in the House of Commons, requiring the amendments put forward in the Lords to get a final green light from MPs.

Feed-in tariffs to support renewable electricity and renewable heat were some of the key amendments added to the Bill in the Lords earlier this month (see this New Energy Focus story).

The tariffs would offer a guaranteed level of payment from energy suppliers to renewable energy providers to encourage the move away from fossil fuel use.

For electricity there is already a government subsidy system available - the Renewables Obligation - and ministers argued last week that a 3MW cap was needed to protect larger projects from being undermined by the prospect of feed-in tariffs coming along.

However, today will see the government suggesting a 5MW maximum for projects to be eligible for the electricity feed-in tariff, after an amendment was put forward in the Secretary of State's name.

Flexibility

The Energy Bill itself will not set the finer details of the feed-in tariff systems, it provides the broad powers needed for the government to introduce the schemes. The details will be shaped by industry consultation and put through Parliament in secondary legislation that does not require extensive Parliamentary debate.

Explaining the move to increase the cap on the electricity feed-in tariff, the Department for Energy and Climate Change said it meant the Secretary of State would have a greater flexibility to choose a threshold without having to go back to Parliament with new primary legislation.

A spokeswoman for the DECC explained today: "We want to give ourselves a bit more flexibility. The 5MW level is not the final limit - the Secretary of State will have powers to decide the exact level after consultation. But it is giving us enough flexibility to include projects like schools, hospitals and community schemes."

The Department has carried out research that suggested that more than 90% of projects within the current Renewables Obligation system will be "unaffected" by the proposed feed-in tariff with the cap at 5MW.

The spokeswoman said that moving from a 3MW to a 5MW level could mean that community projects included within a feed-in tariffs could be stretched from those powering around 2,500 homes up to schemes powering up to 4,500 households.

Meanwhile, other amendments to be discussed today include an attempt by MPs including the Tory shadow energy ministerial team of Greg Clark and Charles Hendry, joined by Liberal Democrat energy spokesman Steve Webb, demanding a guaranteed start for feed-in tariffs for within a year of the Bill becoming law.

The move comes after criticism from, among others, the Renewable Energy Association and Friends of the Earth that the government has not said clearly when it will introduce its renewable energy tariffs.

Climate Change Bill

The final stages of the Energy Bill's progression comes as two other Bills with significant impacts on the UK energy sector also reach the end of their runs through Parliament.

Like the Energy Bill, the Climate Change Bill is currently going through the "ping pong" stage where the Bills are sent back and forth between the Lords and the Commons to get final amendments agreed by both Houses.

The Planning Bill has its third reading in the Lords this afternoon, after which it will see the finishing touches signed off by Parliament next week.

Yesterday's Climate Change Bill hearing in the Lords saw the government adding amendments to include other greenhouse gases than just carbon dioxide within the Climate Change Bill's targets.

Ministers kept the overall 26% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2020, extending it to all climate change-causing emissions, but Lord Hunt said the government would have to amend the target "soon" to take account of its extended scope. Ministers will wait for advice from their Committee on Climate Change before doing so.

The Lords also dealt with the "technically complex" issue of emissions from international aviation and shipping yesterday.

The government wants to see these emissions included in the UK's overall 2050 climate change target, but does not want to set specific targets for the air and shipping industries yet, until better information is available. Ministers do resolve to set specific targets by 2012, however.

CDM

The Lords also debated the use of foreign carbon emission reduction projects in counting towards UK targets under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism.

The government survived an attempt to set a firm quota for domestic projects by promising to take advice from the Committee on Climate Change on the matter and possibly set a limit on foreign projects at a later date.

Quotas suggested so far by peers have varied between 50:50 and 70:30 weighted in favour of domestic carbon emission reductions.

Lord Hunt said: "Our view is that setting a binding limit in the Bill would send the wrong signal to our international partners about our support for a truly global carbon market. This is particularly important given the ongoing negotiations on a comprehensive, global, long-term framework for action, which we hope to agree at Copenhagen in December next year."

NewEnergyFocus 2008