My Lords, in moving Amendment 51A I will also speak to Amendment 57; I hope that noble Lords will welcome them. The issue of increasing the scale of the feed-in tariff scheme was debated in Committee and on Report in the other place. It has also been raised by a number of noble Lords, both at Second Reading and outside the Chamber, including my noble friends Lady Maddock, Lord Teverson and Lord Stephen, as well as the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, the noble Lords, Lord Whitty and Lord Cameron, and the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London.
Having carefully considered the options, the Government agree that there would be a benefit to a limited extension of the feed-in tariff scheme. We intend to limit this support to community energy
projects only. For developers of commercial projects larger than 5 megawatts, we continue to believe that larger projects are best supported through market-based incentives such as the renewables obligation and, shortly, contracts for difference as part of the electricity market reform process. This approach also offers the best value for money to the taxpayer.
Since the start of the FITs scheme three years ago, many communities have installed solar panels, wind turbines or hydro schemes. However, until now, they have been limited to a maximum capacity of 5 megawatts. We have listened to the compelling arguments of Co-operatives UK and others, and are convinced that the certainty of the feed-in tariffs scheme is a more appropriate way of helping community groups to deliver locally generated energy at scale and at the heart of their communities. We want to see communities up and down the country raising their ambition, and consider community-owned wind and solar schemes the most likely to benefit from this change. We hope that these amendments pave the way to support this greater ambition for community energy.
Amendment 57 is a procedural requirement which explains when this enabling power to amend the feed-in tariff scheme should come into effect. We will consult on how we intend to enable this change in secondary legalisation following Royal Assent. The current FITs scheme includes a definition of “community” which will form the basis of our consultation. We know that many will want to apply for this new support. However, we want to ensure that only genuine community energy schemes are permitted to benefit, so it is important that we create robust legislation which provides confidence to the public that subsidies are being delivered only to the intended recipients.
Taken together, these two amendments will drive a step change in the deployment of community energy. I hope your Lordships will support these amendments. I beg to move.