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.

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.

Former MP Alan Simpson says the UK should follow Germanys example on feed-in tariffs and support decentralised energy.

David Cameron should not be surprised that his 'green' credentials are to be legally challenged by the community energy schemes he directly pledged to support.
The PM may have a solar roof on his own home, but he wants to prevent most others from doing the same. Specifically, he wants to make sure the poor can't join him.

Today the government announced that from 12 December there would be a large cut in the Feed-in Tariff – the financial incentive that makes installing solar PV an excellent investment. But while many reports in the media suggest that this is terrible news, SunGift Solar has revealed that, despite the lower rates, solar PV is still an exceptional investment.

If you have had a Sunny Beam Personal Display, for your Solar PV system, since before 1st April of this year you probably need to up-date the tariff.
Please follow these instructions
- Press knob on side of Sunny Beam till it comes up with the menu
- Turn knob to scroll down to Settings (press knob to select)
- Scroll down to Display Options (press knob to select)
- Scroll down to Balance Coefficients (press knob to select)
- Scroll down to Revenue/kWh (press knob to select)
- Press knob until the cursor is on the number that needs changing (e.g. 1 for 0.4130p/kWh)