Supreme Court rejects Government's solar appeal

On Friday The Supreme Court threw out the Government's attempt to appeal on the ruling that its actions on solar Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs) were illegal.
This provides a unanimous decision from the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court that the Government should not have prematurely cut solar Feed-in Tariffs before the end of a consultation period, placing thousands of green jobs at risk; and clarifies the Government can not change the Feed-in Tariff retrospectively.

This means any solar installation completed before March 3rd this year, qualifies for the higher Feed-in Tariff rate. The law, as stated by the Court of Appeal, is that the 12th December could not be used as the Feed-in Tariff cut off date, a Feed-in Tariff date change can only be set by regulations laid before Parliament and can only take effect after the period of 40 days specified.

The original legal challenge was made by Solarcentury, Friends of the Earth and HomeSun, and the High Court ruled on 21 December that a Government proposal to cut payments for any solar scheme completed after 12 December 2011 - 11 days before an official consultation into the proposal had even closed - was unlawful.

Jeremy Leggett, Chairman, Solarcentury said on friday:
''The Supreme Court has today confirmed that the Government simply has no grounds to appeal the decision that its handling of solar Feed-in Tariffs was illegal. This final step in the legal process has wasted much needed time and money and now we, the renewables industry, simply want to get on with creating our clean energy future...'

Biomass success

Tomorrow's Energy has installed a 65KW biomass boiler at Henstaff Business Centre.

Feed In Tariff Update

Last week the government lost its appeal in the High Court over the Feed in Tariff consultation.  As the government is considering whether or not to appeal to the Supreme Court, there is still confusion over what the tariff rate for installations between 12^th December – 2^ndMarch will be.

The government has 28 days to decide on whether to appeal but has already indicated that it is likely to.  Therefore we have been advised whilst the legal process is ongoing, from both the Energy Savings Trust and REAL, to quote for work based on the lower 21p rate.

If you require further useful information it can be found on the following pages:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Financial-incentives/UK-Government-proposed-changes-to-solar-PV-Feed-in-Tariffs

http://www.realassurance.org.uk/news/decc-loses-fit-appeal-but-seeks-leave-to-appeal-to-the-supreme-court

ELECSA is monitoring the situation and we will keep you informed of any further key decisions and announcements that will affect solar PV, any other renewable technologies or MCS.

Judges Reject Government's Appeal

The government may consider an appeal in order to ensure demand for new solar installations remains low in the run up to March 3 - the new cut off date for the higher rate of feed-in tariff incentives.

If the government does not appeal against today's court ruling the level of incentives available for installations completed before March 3 will be confirmed at 43p/kWh. 

Ministers are concerned that the ruling could spark a month long gold rush as households and businesses rush to take advantage of the higher rate, eating further into a feed-in tariff budget that has already been exceeded for this year.

We will provide more updates over the coming days to keep you informed.

Environmental Commitee Meetings

The Environmental Audit Committee and Energy and Climate Change Committee are today calling for evidence on the Feed-in Tariffs for small-scale Solar Photovoltaic (PV) renewable energy, with a view to hearing oral evidence later this month.

The Committees will examine the factors Government should consider when setting the rate of the Feed-in Tariffs in future, including the impact on electricity bills, ‘green jobs’, take-up of other renewables and energy-saving behaviours. The Committees are interested in receiving written evidence that looks at the following themes of the inquiry:

a. Impact to date of Solar PV Feed-in Tariffs and the state of the solar energy market;

b. The balance between affordability and delivering the objectives of the Solar PV Feed-in Tariffs, including factors to consider when setting the rate of small-scale Feed-in Tariffs including jobs created, emissions reductions and energy-saving behavioural change;

c. The way in which the Government has managed the Solar PV Feed-in Tariff, the impact this has had to date, including the management of the Consultation;

d. Affordability of Solar Photovoltaic energy versus other renewable energy (given the overall levy-funded cap for energy bills) and the impact of Feed-in Tariffs on energy bills; and

e. Experience of similar incentive mechanisms for renewables in other countries.