Government Lose Feed In Tariff Appeal
Following a hearing ten days ago, the court of appeal has upheld a ruling from the high court which decided that the governments proposed changes to the solar power Feed In Tariff were unlawful as they “took away an existing entitlement without statutory authority”.
This decision is a damaging blow to ministers and other government officials at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) who must now officially intoduce the 3rd of March contingency date for the 21p/kwh rate of solar pv payments, rather than the 12th of December they had been hoping for.
This means that, despite government objection, anyone who signs up to the solar pv scheme – whereby solar panels are fitted to homes, and the owners can sell excess energy back to the national grid in return for money – before the March 3rd cut off date will recieve the originally proposed 43p/kwh rate for the entire 25 year scheme span.
Meanwhile anyone who registers after the March 3rd cut off will be eligible for 43p rate until April 1st, when it will then drop to the new 21p rate. Anyone after April 1st will only be eligible for the 21p rates also.
Secretary of state for energy and climate change, Chris Huhne expressed his disappointment after the ruling, and confirmed that the DECC would be seeking permission to take the appeal all the way to the supreme court, adding “We want to maximise the number of installations that are possible within the available budget rather than use available money to pay a higher tariff to half the number of installations.”
This may strike as a blow to the government as they had intended to save money by lowering the tariff rate (they will now also have to pay £125,000 for the hearing) but it does come as a boost to potential customers, as by signing up for the Tariff scheme before 3rd March they can secure themselves the larger payment for many years.
Regardless of the payment level however, this scheme still provides a fantastic opportunity for many households, as it allows them to fit environmentally friendly solar panels to their home without the costs, make an income from the sale of the power, and cut their own energy bills with a piece of energy independency!
So, if all of this sounds appealing to you (as it should) then make your move today, get in touch with the solar panels team here at Westville on , and see what we can do for you!
Tags: feed in tariff, government feed in tariff, Solar Panels, Solar PV