5 January 2012
  The future of Feed-in Tariff (FiT) cuts remains uncertain, following the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC)’s decision to lodge an appeal against the High Court’s ruling that their proposed reductions to the tariff rates were “legally flawed”.
The ruling was made on 21st December following a two-day court hearing, which resulted from a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth and two solar firms. The High Court ruled that the Government’s approach to rushing into reducing FiT rates – by putting the drastic cuts into effect 11 days before the end of their own consultation period – was premature and illegal.
Despite Judge Mitting’s warning that there was little chance an appeal would prove successful, DECC lodged grounds for an appeal yesterday.
A DECC spokesperson commented:
"We have lodged grounds of appeal with the court. We hope that permission will be granted for an appeal and that we can secure a hearing as soon as possible, so that we can provide clarity for consumers and industry on the way forward."
If the DECC’s appeal is denied, it is predicted that the original, higher tariff rate of 43.3 pence per kilowatt-hour will remain in effect until at least mid-February.
If the appeal is successful, the originally proposed cut-off date of 12th December will be reinstated, meaning that solar PV installations with an eligibility date of 12th December or later will receive the reduced tariff rate of 21 pence per kilowatt-hour.
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