DECC loses Court of Appeal hearing - PV rates to be restored till 3rd March

Department of Energy and Climate Change must restore the 43p per kWh rate until the new 'contingency date' of March 3rd. Only after that will the new 21p rate apply for domestic solar PV.

For those who have schemes ready to go ahead, this is a one-off opportunity to secure both the recent cost reductions and the higher rates of feed-in tariff - but only if you are lined up with a supplier who can complete the installation by the beginning of March.

Keep in mind that DECC intends to appeal further (26th January).

Regard the restored rates as a bonus, and proceed only if you were already sure solar PV was the right investment for your farm situation.

If you want to benefit from the old rates, you need to have a good quality supplier lined up, you also need:

· Funds in place (usually a 50% deposit will be required up front)

· DNO permission for grid connection, and

· Planning permission - if needed (which it almost certainly will be, though some have applied retrospectively for roof mounted PV - a risky strategy).

If you are on the point of investing, we have good quality suppliers who may be able to fit you in before the deadline if you apply this week (by 27th January) and can help to get DNO and planning applications in quickly.

DECC announces intention to make further appael - to Supreme Court (26th January 2012)

Chris Huhne made a written statement on 26th January. Key extracts:

'The Government’s proposed changes to the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) scheme are the subject of a judicial review. The Court of Appeal (ruled against) the Government’s appeal against an earlier decision by the High Court. We ... are seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

In the light of that, we cannot rule out the possibility that (the new) lower tariffs could be applied to installations which became eligible for FITs on or after (12rth December 2011).'

The reason for the (proposed) further appeal is that DECC wants 'to maximise the number of installations that are possible within the available budget for FITs, rather than use available money to pay a higher tariff to half the number of installations.'

DECC is still intending to publish phase 2 of the FIT consultation by 9 February. This will include proposed tariffs for other FITs technologies and a set of reform proposals for the scheme. At the same time they intend to publish the Government response on other aspects of the phase 1 consultation, including on energy efficiency conditions for feed-in tariff eligibility.

See FarmREO response to the original consultation for further information about this.

It seems clear that DECC's principal reason for appealing the decision of the Appeal Court is to dissuade people from taking up the higher rates before the new date of 3rd March. Only those who proceed quickly despite this continuing uncertainty would be able to secure the rates in any case.

It is of course possible that DECC will be granted leave to appeal to the Supreme Court, even possible that they may yet win the appeal.

[ 25-Jan-2012 ]