News

25 January 2012

The Governments Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) appeal was refused today by the Court of Appeal. This is another positive indicator that the proposed cuts made on 12 December 2011 are unlikely to be implemented.

The Government was appealing against a decision by the High Court just before Christmas upholding a legal challenge from Friends of the Earth and two solar companies that the Government’s plan to reduce the FITs for new solar PV systems before its consultation on the proposed changes had finished was "legally flawed".

The Government yesterday laid some draft regulations before Parliament outlining what will happen if they lose their legal battle. This is an insurance policy in case the Government isn’t successful.

DECC has now said that following confirmation that there will be a hearing of its appeal against the JR finding it can now state the following regarding tariffs - which should help to reduce the uncertainty:

“The tariff rate for PV installations less than or equal to 4kW will not fall below 21p for installations with an eligibility date between 12th December 2011 and 31st March 2012.”

Friends of the Earth have confirmed that Friday next week (13 Jan) has been set as the date for the Court of Appeal to consider the Governments appeal re the High Court’s FITs decision. The outcome of this appeal will dictate the current Feed In Tariff rate.

If the Government’s application for permission to appeal is granted then the appeal itself will be held on the same day.

DECC have officially lodged an appeal with the High Court contesting the pre Christmas ruling that the government had breached rules governing consultation exercises, when it announced that proposed cuts to feed-in tariff incentives would impact installations completed before the end of the consultation period.

SunPower announced that it is providing 22,000 solar cells to the Solar Impulse project, the first airplane propelled only by solar energy to circumnavigate the globe. The Solar Impulse team has produced a prototype (HB-SIA) solar airplane that, for the first time in aviation history, succeeded in flying for 26 consecutive hours powered only by solar energy. A second solar airplane (HB-SIB) is currently under construction with plans to circumnavigate the globe in 2014.

SunPower’s high-efficiency technology was selected for both planes because of its

The Government's planned cuts to the Feed-in Tariff have been thrown into disarray this afternoon after a High Court judge ruled they were "legally flawed".

The ruling to order a judicial review was made by Mr Justice Mitting following a two-day hearing at London's High Court.

During the hearing, Energy Minister Chris Huhne was likened to Shakespeare's Macbeth with his slash-and-run plan to cut the Feed-in Tariff for solar electricity, which was argued was “manifestly unlawful”.

A recent YouGov poll conducted for the Sunday Times has revealed that the British public strongly support the implementation of renewable technology in order to meet the country’s future energy requirements.

The online poll questioned 1,696 people about what technology should be used for the country’s future energy provision.

Almost three-quarters of those questioned (74 percent) believe that the Government should be looking to use more solar power to meet the nation’s future energy requirements.

The UK Government could face legal action over its plans to more than halve solar subsidies, the European Commission has today confirmed.

In response to a Priority Question submitted by Green MEP for London, Jean Lambert, the Commission states that legal proceedings will be taken if the Government’s proposal to drastically slash the solar Feed-in-Tariff threatens progress towards the UK’s binding EU target on renewable energy.

Earlier this week, the Tank dealt with the puzzling nature of Bruce Forsyth, and today we're trying to get our head round another of life's mysteries – how much feed-in tariffs would add to energy bills if the government delayed deep cuts to the incentive scheme?
We're only prompted to offer our expertise in the matter as it seems neither the MPs on the Energy and Climate Change and Environmental Audit Committees, nor even the government itself, has a Scooby Doo.