Political parties are being urged to put micro-generation front and centre in their policies by an organisation representing stakeholders in the micro-renewables sector.

The Micro-Renewable Energy Federation (MREF) launched its election manifesto – titled ‘Power to the People’ – today, Wednesday, January 22, which seeks the support of all political parties for a ‘five-point action plan’ targeted at “every home, business and farm to adopt micro-generation”.

Pat Smith, the national chairperson of the MREF, said that “all sectors of society are tired of waiting for our political leaders to match their stated ambition on climate action with real action that delivers sustainable incentives to help drive the transition to a low carbon future”.

He argued: “There are tens of thousands of hectares of suitable rooftop space across the country for solar PV [panel] installation.”

According to Smith: “SMEs [small and medium enterprises] and farmers are at a loss to know why they are being ignored while businesses and farms across Europe have been supported in installing solar PV generation for years.”

The MREF chairperson also called for recent cuts to funding to be “reversed immediately by the next Government”, arguing that new “easily accessible” grant support, with less cost and bureaucracy, was needed.

Smith concluded his comments by calling on voters to “make their views known” on what he said was the lack of supports to encourage people to switch to renewables.