UK Solar PV FIT cuts Judicial Review.
FoE UK v DECC
In case you want to know about the Solar PV FIT Judicial Review by Friends of The Earth, here is our reaction.
One the one hand, the fact that it has shown DECC that it needs to follow due process is welcome, because too often they have been cavalier. I’d actually like to see a Judicial Review into their new policies of “far more electrification” and “electricity grid decarbonisation = nuclearisation”.
On the other hand, the Judicial Review uncertainty has put a freeze on PV customers ordering at present. How will we survive? Unless the government win, the PV speculators will soon be raking it in as before (we paid them 99p -125p per watt for PVs instead of the usual 65p for much of the gold rush 6w), and, of course the fixed funding pot of £280M will empty far sooner than planned, making the jobs cliff edge for the industry happen much sooner, and from a greater, ie more lethal, height.
Are we all lemmings? Have FoE vainly won a battle, at the price of winning the war? What is virtually certain is that the taxpayer will now get far fewer green watts for their money.
I hope this is useful. Happy holidays to everyone!
Further solar PV FITS CUTS JR Background
The implications of the recent Judicial Review decision mean that the pre 12th December tariffs (43.3p per kWh of solar electricity generated for small domestic installations) cannot be changed to the proposed figure of 21p until after the full parliamentary process – i.e. an 8 week consultation, followed by a review of the responses and then a 40 day period before the legislation takes effect. But this is unless the Government wins an appeal.
Government was not given leave to appeal, but if it wants to make a case it must put that forward by 4th January 2012. Effectively the situation for systems going in now is one of two things.
1/ If Government is able to appeal, and also if it wins, we then revert to the original situation. I.e. there is a valid consultation ongoing, and a domestic system can expect to earn 21p (or whatever government concludes after the consultation) from 1st April.
2/ If government is not able to appeal, or if it loses on appeal, then the 43p tariff remains in place until the new Parliamentary process has concluded (which is expected to be 1st April 2012).
We are deeply concerned about the implications of this Judicial Review and the budgetary implications of a return to 43p, because it means that the funds may run out too soon.
Additional news is the publication of two select committee reports which criticise Government’s handling of the tariff changes. Here are some news links:
We will keep you posted when we have any further significant information.
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