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The government's potentially costly and damaging challenge to last month's High Court solar ruling will be heard by the Court of Appeal tomorrow, Friday 13 January. The government is disputing the High Court's decision that it acted illegally when it rushed through sudden cuts to solar payments.
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Friends of the Earth and two solar firms, Solarcentury and HomeSun, took the government to court to get the ruling. Craig Bennett, Campaigns Director, Friends of the Earth, said "Instead of wasting taxpayers' money fighting this in the courts, Ministers should safeguard thousands of solar jobs and enable more homes, businesses and communities to plug in to clean energy".
Now Camden has joined Friends of the Earth and other local authorities across the country in objecting to the government’s consultation proposals to cut FiT rates for solar electricity projects.
The FiT currently guarantees an income to installers of solar electricity panels and is instrumental in supporting low carbon growth in Camden.
As well as cutting FiT rates, the government’s latest review makes two other controversial proposals: firstly it proposes to bring forward the cuts to a date prior to the close of the consultation and secondly it further reduces rates to organisations that install more than one solar system.
Camden challenged both of these proposals through the consultation process and made its submission on 20 December 2011.
The government is now appealing a High Court ruling that the consultation was unlawful because of the proposed retrospective cut date. The High Court judge has already said that an appeal by the government would have no realistic chance of success. Nevertheless, ministers are ploughing ahead.
Cllr Sean Birch, Camden Council’s Cabinet Member for Sustainability, said: “The proposed FiT review poses a significant challenge to renewable energy ambitions across Camden and undermines our push towards a 40 per cent borough wide carbon reduction by 2020. The review as it stands casts doubt over a number of our low carbon energy projects and is bad news for homeowners, our growing low carbon economy and the planet.”
Friends of the Earth is calling on the government to accept the High Court ruling and help solar to get back on its feet by:
* Reducing tariff rates in a planned way from February 2012 to protect jobs.
* Increasing the budget for solar.
* Letting more people - including householders and disadvantaged communities - benefit from the technology.
Potentially the UK solar industry could have a bright future. The government's solar scheme has so far been a great success. It has led to the installation of more than 100,000 solar panel projects and created around 27,000 new jobs.
The majority of these jobs are now under threat and countless planned clean energy schemes have been abandoned, say Friends of the Earth.
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