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Solar power is spearheading the UK’s “third industrial revolution”

Despite the recent planned cuts in subsidy support for solar farms, Nick Boyle, CEO of Lightsource Renewable Energy, here explores the numerous opportunities that still exist to keep the UK’s “third industrial revolution” on track for a bright future.

The solar power industry has come a long way since the introduction of the feed-in tariffs back in 2010. There have been some interesting challenges on this journey with numerous cuts to subsidies and the recent DECC announcement heralding yet more hurdles in the years to come in the form of the forced move to CFDs.

Despite all of this, there have also been some huge gains and achievements that should make the industry as a whole very proud.

In the first quarter of this year, 1085MWp of new solar power capacity was added in the UK. To deploy 1.1GWp in such short period is simply amazing. Last year I referred to large scale solar power generation as a cottage industry, but as these figures show we are no longer a silent partner in the overall energy mix.

Our own achievements, as the leading developer and operator of PV in the UK, have not been without challenges. Last year, when I revealed our ambition of 600MW in operation by April 1st people laughed, but we have achieved and even surpassed that figure. In the month of March alone, we brought 227MW online – with 16 of those 26 sites being switched on in just one weekend thanks to a very dedicated and experienced team.

While I’m naturally very proud of what Lightsource has achieved, these achievements serve to prove that solar power should have no problem competing as an equal in the electricity market. However, we must face the potential threats to our industry and rise to the challenges that we are being presented. Imagine where we would be if the UK consumer was able to truly make a decision on where they want their energy to come from.

Although large ground-based developments offer the most cost effective form of solar technology solution, we expect to see huge growth coming from rooftop installations. However, it is vital that the correct balance between the deployment of large-scale ground-based and rooftop sites is maintained.

The recent DECC announcements are obviously going to pose a new hurdle, but what the industry must remember is that subsidy is and always has been a means to an end – these support mechanisms are designed to bring technology to a point of price parity. In the past, cuts have been made to bring us in-line with other technologies and solar should not expect further “Christmas presents.”

It is important to understand that the proposed changes are not about the Government wanting to prevent solar farm deployment, as they are well aware that solar power remains the most popular of all energy technologies.

The habit of turning on a light, running a bath or flicking the kettle on is not going out of fashion, and with the UK’s fossil fuels resources depleted in the next few years, we need to home-grow our own electricity wherever possible. This cannot be done at any cost, but only where cost effective. Solar power is the fastest growing solution to the problem. We have proven to be the least offensive energy technology, and therefore the most popular, with an 85% approval rating according to a recent DECC poll of the UK public.

There remains huge opportunity in the UK for solar energy. Storage technology, for example, will metamorphosis our industry. Coupled with battery storage technology, solar power can become a deliverer of baseload energy – to supply energy at a constant rate not just at “sunny” times. As this technology comes down in price and becomes more viable, we are able to look at having on-site storage facilities to store unused energy from peak generation times – allowing us the ability to control what goes into the grid and match supply with need.

At a recent conference I attended in New York someone again described what we were doing as the third industrial revolution, which I don’t think overplays the point and captures the potential that solar technology possesses. We are at the vanguard of a revolution in the way and where we generate our electricity. It is this revolution that will deliver much needed energy security to Britain.

Although the challenge ahead for us and the entire solar industry in the UK is within the detail of the impending CFD regime and how this system is going to be implemented, we will tackle this head on and demonstrate that the large scale application of solar technology is currently the most efficient and cost effective form of electricity generation that will reach grid parity sooner than predicted and lower electricity bills for the consumer. Who can possibly argue with that?

Group voting ticket

Group voting tickets (also known as “above the line” voting) are a way to simplify preferential voting, usually in an election held under the single transferable vote or the alternative vote system. Ranking each candidate individually is called “below the line” voting.

Voters can choose to vote for a ticket by placing the number ‘1’ in one of the ticket boxes or can vote for individual candidates by numbering all the boxes in that section. Ticket votes are distributed according to the party or group voting ticket registered before the election with the election management body. In some elections, voters can express an order of preferences among different tickets by voting ‘1’, ‘2’ and so on in different ticket boxes.

Group voting tickets are used in many of the upper houses of Australian parliaments, most notably the Australian Senate. They are also used for some elections in Fiji. They were originally introduced to reduce the growing proportion of voters who cast invalid votes, as a single mark is all that is needed to cast a valid vote. In Australia, this reduced the rate of informal voting in the Senate from around nine percent previous to 1984, to around three percent during the time of group voting tickets.

In Australian elections for the upper houses which use proportional representation as well as preferential voting, it may be daunting to have to fill in 70 boxes—preferences are compulsory in Commonwealth, Victorian and South Australian elections. Some voters would choose their early preferences and then vote for other candidates in the order they appeared on the ballot paper—known as a donkey vote; or fill in the form incorrectly, leading to an informal vote.

To ease this task, above the line voting allows the voter to choose one party or group, and all the remaining squares are deemed to be filled in according to a registered party ticket. About 95% of voters choose to use this method.^[1] This leads to pre-election trading between parties on how each party will allocate later preferences to other parties and candidates.

“Above the line” voting has been criticised as electors not knowing, and having no practical way of finding out, where their preferences are being directed. All details are published in advance, both electronically and in a free booklet published by the Australian Electoral Commission. The booklets may be viewed at polling booths on request to the poll officials. However, such is the complexity of the information that it is unlikely that the average voter could easily determine the fate of his or her vote’s preferences particularly, as some parties submit multiple allocations (e.g., 33% to one party, 66% to another, and so on), and the effects are integrally wound up in preference deals between other parties.

Tactical voting

Using GVTs, the potential for tactical voting by parties is greatly increased. Because voters are not usually aware of how a party’s preferences are directed, GVTs have allowed minor parties with low support in the community to be elected almost exclusively on the preferences of other parties, for example, where small parties with very different views have agreed to exchange preferences, or where larger parties have sought to minimise votes for opponents with similar views.

A notable case came in the New South Wales Legislative Council election of 1999, when the Outdoor Recreation Party‘s Malcolm Jones was elected with a primary vote of 0.19%,^[2] or 0.042 of a quota.

GVTs came under scrutiny at the 2013 Australian election for multiple candidates getting provisionally elected with the vast majority of the 14.3 percent quota being filled from preferences, with “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery‘s Minor Party Alliance organising tight cross-preferencing between minor parties.^[3][4][5] Motoring’s Ricky Muir won a senate seat on a record-low primary vote of 0.5 percent in Victoria^[6][7] (previous record held by Family First’s Steve Fielding in 2004 on 1.9 percent in Victoria).^[8] The Sports Party‘s Wayne Dropulich was on track for a period of time to win a Senate seat from 0.2 percent in Western Australia, coming 21st out of 28 groups.^[9][10][11] Family First’s Bob Day won a seat on a primary vote of 3.8 percent in South Australia,^[7][12] and the DLP’s John Madigan won his seat in 2010 on a primary vote of 2.3 percent in Victoria.^[13] Xenophon and larger parties including the incoming government are looking at changes to the GVT system.^[14][15][16]

2003 changes in NSW

Following the use of tactical preference tickets and the record number of minor parties contesting the 1999 Council election, a modified form of group ticket voting was introduced in the 2003 election. A candidate group for NSW Legislative Council elections now requires 15 candidates to be eligible for an “above the line” box. Parties do not lodge preference tickets and a single 1 in that box only preferences the candidates in the group. Voters wishing to preference multiple parties with an “above the line” vote can use lower preferences (“2”, “3”, and so on) in those parties’ “above the line” boxes. Other changes to party registration processes have also resulted in many fewer parties contesting NSW Legislative Council elections.

References

External links

• Above or below the line? Managing preference votes by Antony Green
• 2007 Federal Election – group voting tickets