24th Jul 2015 07:38
LONDON (Alliance News) - NextEnergy Solar Fund Ltd Friday said none of its projects will be affected by the proposals laid out by the UK government to scrap subsidies for small scale solar projects.
UK Secretary of Energy and Climate Change Amber Rudd on Wednesday scrapped further renewable energy subsidies, specifically for solar and biomass, in the new Conservative government's latest move to try to control what it considers over-expenditure and spiralling consumer bills.
Rudd said it was a government priority to reduce household bills and said it has driven down the cost of renewable energy enough for parts of the industry to "survive without subsidies".
NextEnergy Thursday said none of its 18 projects will be affected by the proposed changes to the Renewables Obligation or the fellow Feed-In-Tariff subsidy. It also said its dividend target remains unchanged.
"NextEnergy's pipeline of growth opportunities includes a significant number of projects that would not be impacted by the proposed changes, or that would qualify for a Grace Period under the Consultations. In addition, NextEnergy believes that there remains a material pipeline of opportunities for growth up to 2020," said the company in a statement.
At the end of June, the company said it was confident of achieving its dividend target of 6.25 pence per share for the financial year ending March 31, 2016. It paid a first interim dividend of 2.625p in December and expects to pay a second interim dividend of the same amount in July.
In total, the UK government has scrapped or proposed to scrap subsidies affecting onshore and offshore wind, solar power and biomass, on top of the decision to scrap the "out-dated" climate change levy, which was introduced in 2001 with the aim of improving energy efficiency and increase demand for renewable energy.
The only renewable energy sectors that have escaped the government so far is hydro power, geothermal and biofuels. However these contribute much less to the UK energy mix than the more established solar, wind and biomass sectors.
NextEnergy shares were untraded on Friday morning, last trading at 105.0 pence per share.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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