The Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear the Government's initial challenge to last month's High Court ruling that its solar cuts are illegal next Friday.
The move follows a High Court ruling that the Government's plans to rush through sudden cuts to solar payments were illegal, following a legal challenge by Friends of the Earth and two solar firms, Solarcentury and HomeSun.
The hearing will be "rolled-up" so that the application for permission to appeal and any subsequent appeal itself will be held on the same day.
The Government's decision to continue the legal battle has been met with disappointment from campaigners and industry leaders.
Friends of the Earth's Policy and Campaigns Director Craig Bennett said: "Ministers' insistence on continuing with the appeal process will simply add to the cloud of uncertainty hanging over the solar industry - and the thousands of jobs at stake.
"Instead of wasting taxpayers' money fighting this in the courts, Ministers should take steps to safeguard thousands of solar jobs and enable more homes, businesses and communities to plug in to clean energy."
Jeremy Leggett, Chairman, Solarcentury, said: “It's disappointing that the Secretary of State has plunged the solar industry into a further period of uncertainty by going to appeal. DECC should not be using the appeal process to prolong the uncertainty which they have created with their illegal proposal.
“They must know that their prospects of success are slim."
He added: "Whatever DECC’s official statement says about the statutory purpose of the Feed in Tariffs and the Energy Act, it can’t hide the fact that they completely ignored the required Parliamentary procedure for their proposal.
“The Secretary of State can’t set a cut-off date which takes effect before Parliament has finished considering his proposal. That’s an illegal proposal. And DECC can’t keep trying to claim the 12 December cut-off date is 'just a proposal'.
“As the High Court said, the 12 December date is not 'just a proposal' it is an executive action with immediate economic effect and so, the High Court was right to judicially review it. Obviously we hope the Court of Appeal will confirm this quickly and DECC will get on with resolving the consultation process and all the uncertainty which they have created for the solar industry."
Phil McVan, MD of Myriad CEG Power, the UK’s largest supplier and installer of renewable energy equipment, said: “The Government’s poorly thought out strategies, lack of foresight and failure to act on the major warning signs that the scheme was flawed, brought the industry to its knees.
“In an attempt to minimise the damage to its creditbility of a High Court ruling that it’s policy was "legally flawed" it is now appealing, which has simply created more uncertainty and confusion.
“The government should be working to minimise the damage to the industry, ensure that poor and disadvantaged communities don’t miss out on the real benefits of solar energy and that robust businesses have an environment in which they can prosper and help the UK meet its green energy targets.
“The ironic thing is that, without all the confusion created over the last few months and with the right government support, solar could still become a very sound investment, particularly as energy prices are going to continue to rise.
“The Government is in the last chance saloon over solar FiTs and we hope this opportunity is not lost.”
However, David Hunt, a director with leading renewable energy company Eco Environments, urged for greater caution.
“Our biggest concern is that we see a return to the 43.3p/kWh subsidy level until April,” he explained. “This would cause an astonishing boom followed quickly by the most catastrophic bust.
“The Government has made it clear that the Feed-in-Tariff budget is already spent, so a further boom now would mean that any new rate would be a lot less than the proposed 21p/kWh.
“While we would have obviously preferred the new rate to be higher than 21p, anything less would not just damage the industry – it would kill it forever.
“All of this prolonged agony for the industry could have been avoided if the Government had got its consultation process right in the first place and not looked to introduce the new rates while the consultation was supposedly still ongoing.
“While businesses like Eco Environments would undoubtedly do well in the three month window between now and April if we reverted to the 43p rate, that is not what we are about. We are about building a long-term, sustainable business which creates jobs and helps consumers and businesses in the UK to understand and build renewable technologies into their everyday lives.
“The only winners from a return to 43p would be the cowboy solar operators who would quite happily cash in on a short-term opportunity and then close their businesses down and look for the next boom industry to prey on.”
Robert, Plymouth around 4 months, 1 week ago