Court of Appeal schedules Friday 13th as Judgment Day for solar battle
6 Jan, 2012
Ominous date scheduled for "rolled-up" appeal hearing...
The long-running battle over the future of the UK's solar feed-in tariff incentives could finally be resolved on Friday 13 January.
Lawyers acting for Friends of the Earth, one of the organisations leading legal action against the coalition's handling of proposed cuts to solar incentives, have been told the government's appeal hearing against a High Court ruling declaring its proposed changes to the scheme as unlawful has been scheduled for the ominous date.
The hearing will be "rolled-up" so that the application for permission to appeal and if it is granted the appeal itself will be held on the same day.
The hearing will be held earlier than had been expected, with sources initially suggesting that the hearing was likely to be held during the week of 16 January.
The hearing promises to bring to a close an increasingly acrimonious legal battle between the government and a group of green NGOs and businesses, which late last year saw High Court judge Mr Justice Mitting rule that the coalition had acted unlawfully in effectively halving feed-in tariff incentives for some installations completed before the end of the official consultation period.
Justice Mitting also suggested that any appeal against the decision would have little chance of success. However, the government this week lodged an appeal against the decision, arguing that the judge had "erred" in his interpretation of the law governing the feed-in tariff scheme.
The consultation and the legal battle have left solar firms and businesses interested in deploying solar technologies with no certainty as to the current level of incentives available.
Climate Change Minister Greg Barker told BusinessGreen yesterday that the government was on track to publish the response to the consultation and launch a new comprehensive review of the feed-in tariff scheme by the end of the month, providing the industry with certainty as to the level of feed-in tariff incentives in the future.
However, it remains unclear whether the government will be able to confirm changes to the scheme if it loses its appeal and the consultation is again deemed unlawful.
Growing numbers of solar firms are now urging ministers to bring an end to the uncertainty by setting a date to cut feed-in tariffs to the proposed 21p per kWh level as soon as possible.
Barker insisted the government wanted to avoid a continuation of the current 43p per kWh level as a surge in new installations meant the scheme had already exceeded its spending cap for this year and could break the budget again next year.