Companies cashing in on solar Feed-in Tariff block information bid

The utility giant and 15 other companies refused consent to a ClickGreen Freedom of Information request asking Ofgem to hand over the figures identifying the leading solar panel installers nominated to receive Feed-in Tariff (FiT) payments.

The inquiry was designed to understand how the FiT solar PV budget was consumed so swiftly, triggering the Government to bring forward a reduction in cash support from April 1 to December 12.

Only three companies in the top 20 provided permission to be identified: Derby Homes Ltd, HomeSun and Solar Clean Energy. The fourth organisation was Birmingham City Council.

Of the 'Big Six' energy companies, only E.ON provided Ofgem with consent to be identified but did not feature in the Top 20.

But using publicly available figures, it is clear British Gas Renewables and EDF would feature high up in the league.

The Freedom of Information request found there are 86 companies that are named as nominees more than 25 times and directly receive the FiT for each installation they registered.

However, of the 86 only 33 companies provided consent to be identified, including E.ON, Freetricity, Grax, Savills, Solar Capital and 10 housing associations.

When measured by installed capacity, 14 of the top 20 again refused for their details to be identified.

The six that did allow themselves to be named were Ecotricity, HomeSun, KS SPV 5 Limited, Langage Solar Park Ltd, Severn Trent Green Power Ltd and Solar Clean Energy.