Pop star Lily Allen is backing a campaign to boost green energy in homes and businesses around the country [1]. Along with a groundbreaking east London solar recording studio, she is calling for a financial reward for homes and businesses that generate their own clean renewable energy.

The singer, who has recorded at The Premises solar recording studio in Hackney [2], is backing campaigners from Friends of the Earth, and the Renewable Energy Association in urging MPs to back changes to the Energy Bill so that homes, businesses and communities are given a strong financial incentive for installing solar panels, wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy. This will enable them to produce clean, green energy and tackle climate change.

The Premises, who's solar studio has also been used by artists such as the Klaxons, Hot Chip, Johnny Borrell [3], Bloc Party and Alphabeat, has also sent an e-mail to all MPs this week, with a message from Lily Allen, asking them to amend the Energy Bill. MPs will vote on the changes tomorrow (Wednesday 30 April 2008).

Lily Allen said:

"Having worked at The Premises solar powered recording studio I have experienced how clean and green renewable energy is. I fully support giving people a renewable energy reward for the power they generate. It's good to be green! "

Managing Director of The Premises, Julia Craik, said:

"However much they might wish to be green, for many businesses it is simply not financially viable to install renewable energy. If the UK followed the example of Germany and introduced a premium feed-in tariff the initial costs of installing renewable technologies such as our solar panels will be re-couped in a much shorter time, and after that turn a profit. This would be a huge incentive! "

"With more Government action there could be far more solar powered businesses like The Premises Studios and many households would want to generate their own renewable energy. Then the move to be green, that is now an imperative, will have turned a huge corner."

Friends of the Earth's Energy campaigner Dave Timms said:

"If the Government is serious about boosting renewable energy and tackling climate change it must provide financial incentives to homes and businesses that want to install solar panels and small-scale wind turbines. This means providing them with a guaranteed premium payment for all the renewable energy they generate. We must make it cheaper and easier for people to go green."

Leonie Greene of the Renewable Energy Association said:

"The renewables industry warmly welcomes the very strong show of support for a UK renewables tariff. A tariff for smaller scale renewables would lead to a massive expansion of locally generated green energy and enable the UK to catch up with the rest of Europe. Now we just need politicians to take action - and they have the chance to do so this Wednesday."

Notes

Campaigners are calling for the Energy Bill to be amended to require energy companies to give long-term contracts guaranteeing a premium price for all renewable energy generated by homes and businesses. The scheme, known as a feed-in tariff, would make renewable technologies significantly more cost effective to install.

Feed-in tariff scheme operates in seventeen European countries. It has been especially successful in Germany, which now has 200 times more solar power and more than 10 times more wind power installed than the UK and employs 250,000 people in renewable energy - compared with just 7000 in the UK

A cross party amendment to the Government's Energy Bill, known as `New Clause 4: "Renewable Energy Tariff"', will be debated when the Energy Bill receives its Third Reading in the Commons on 30 April. If adopted it would provide a massive boost to the small scale renewables industry in the UK.

270 MPs, including over 100 Labour MPs, have signed a Parliamentary petition (Early Day Motion) asking for the Energy Bill to be amended to include a feed in tariff for small scale renewables, making it the second most supported petition in the current Parliament out of more than 1400 that have been tabled.

Studio A is the only solar powered recording studio in Europe. State-of-the-art and sustainable, it's powered by 18 photovoltaic panels, which convert light energy into electricity. In one year, the studio will use the same amount of power as it generates. The panels were installed by Chelsfield Solar.

Unfortunately, energy companies have shown little interest in buying the electricity generated by the studios - and even then they have only paid a very low price

Last year Johnny Borrell from Razorlight recorded a song at the solar studio in support of Friends of the Earth's climate campaign, The Big Ask. www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/ ¬
razorlights_johnny_borrell_30052007.html