'Leccy price hike: Greens to blame as well as energy biz . Who's paying for your neighbour's solar panels? You are

The Register
"Why? Because of government regulations imposed on the energy companies, whose effect is to drive up prices and pass the resulting extra cash to the owners of renewable power generators: from massive windfarms to rooftop solar panels on houses.

The first of these schemes is the Renewables Obligation, which compels anyone supplying electricity in the UK to present Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs) equal in number to a given percentage of the total 'leccy they supply (in megawatt-hours) each year. This percentage has been steadily climbing since the RO was introduced at the turn of the century: today it is 11 per cent and it will climb to a bit more than 15 per cent in 2015. After that it will persist until at least 2037 - it was supposed to stop in 2027 but the scheme was extended last year."