'Scrapping of scheme has made green energy too expensive'

This has gradually reduced to approximately £4,300. The coalition government of David Cameron took the opportunity to reduce FIT far too fiercely.

This removed much of the the incentive for house-owners to take them up. The Tories delivered a mortal blow to the FIT in April 2019, when they scrapped it entirely. A hugely efficient way of reducing carbon emissions whilst simultaneously creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs was unceremoniously dumped.

I understand our government intends later this year to grant green energy companies substantial subsidies to meet their costs despite the fact that even without such subsidies from the ‘public purse’, sources indicate that these companies would get a return of 6% per annum on their investment as well as paying farmers £1,500 an acre p.a. to lease land to them. I believe profits are much higher than that. 4 pence in, 16 pence out!

A solar farm produces electricity at roughly the same amortised cost as a domestic installation; about 4 pence per kWh. However, solar farms mar our countryside, cost agricultural jobs and produce and thus we become even more dependent on overseas food sources. By resurrecting the FIT, house-owners would have more cash in their pockets which would boost the economy. They would be paying only 4 pence per kWh for half of their electricity requirements instead of 16-18 pence per kWh for all of it.

At these prices, only the rich will be able to afford to spend £50 a week on air conditioners when it gets too hot to breathe.

As I have frequently reminded your readers, we cannot survive in a world without currency. The word itself implies current and movement but the ways in which cash being hoarded in hideaways abuses its purpose and corrupts us all.

MIKE JOSLIN

Garfield Avenue, Dorchester