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The High Court has ordered a judicial review of the government's proposals to cut feed-in tariff payments for solar photovoltaic installations. Following a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth and two solar firms, Solarcentury and HomeSun, the High Court agreed that proposals to cut feed-in tariff payments for any solar scheme completed after 12 December, eleven days before the current consultation closes tomorrow, were unlawful.
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Friends of the Earth’s executive director Andy Atkins said the "botched" proposals were "jeopardising thousands of jobs. Ministers must now come up with a sensible plan that protects the UK's solar industry and allows cash-strapped homes and businesses to free themselves from expensive fossil fuels by plugging into clean energy,” he said.
He agreed with the government that "solar payments should fall in line with falling installation costs", which have almost halved in the last two years, "but the speed of the government's proposals threatened to devastate the entire industry".
Jeremy Leggett, chairman of Solarcentury, also welcomed the decision, saying: "We encourage the secretary of state to accept the judges' very clear ruling, not plunge the industry into a further period of uncertainty by considering going to appeal".
However, Climate change minister Greg Barker said the government would be seeking an appeal, and hoped to secure a hearing as soon as possible. "Regardless of today’s outcome, the current high tariffs for solar PV are not sustainable and changes need to be made in order to protect the budget which is funded by consumers through their energy bills,” he added.
FoE is also calling for more money to encourage solar installations, to be paid for by the revenue the industry raises for the Treasury, the removal of planned restrictions that would prevent poorer households from installing solar panels and more support for community-owned schemes.
YouGen, commenting on the news, said “We are pleased to hear that the High Court has declared DECC’s consultation on the feed-in tariff ‘legally flawed’ and subject to judicial review,” said YouGen founder Cathy Debenham. “91 per cent of respondents to our recent survey declared that a cut off date that preceded the closing date of the consultation was unacceptable, and it’s good to see government held to account on this.
“We also welcome the thorough analysis of the feed-in tariff process and proposals in the consultation from the Energy and Climate Change and Environmental Audit Committees.
“We have been calling for DECC to uncap the FITs budget, extend the reference date for the introduction of the new tariff, set up a generous community tariff and drop the requirement for buildings to reach EPC (energy performance certificate) level of C to qualify for FITS.
“We are delighted that these are all issues addressed by the committees and hope that DECC will take them on board. Given that DECC did not do a sufficient appraisal before including the feed-in tariffs in its spending review and capping the FITs budget, we trust that they will revisit that decision and make more money available for this popular technology which is rapidly falling in price.
“The report describes the proposal to limit access to the feed-in tariff to the less than 10 per cent of households that meet the highest energy efficiency standards as ‘fatal’.
The plans would require homes to meet a C-rated energy efficiency standard before they can receive subsidies which would limit access to wealthier households. Eighty six per cent of homes would need to be better insulated before they could qualify for the scheme under the government's proposals – increasing up-front costs for homeowners by between £5,600 and £14,000, even before the panels are purchased
Tim Yeo, of the Climate Change Committee said "It would be thoroughly inequitable. We hope that DECC will act on the recommendation and remove the requirement – it is important that a tax payer funded incentive is available to all, not just the wealthiest".
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