UK: Solar installers and developers sue government for £140m

Share

Labeled a "fiasco" by parts of the industry, the reductions in the FIT for photovoltaics in the UK has been a long-running drama. Initially set at £0.43/kWh (US$0.69/kWh), in October 2011 the government indicated that it would cut the rate to £0.21/kWh, to come into effect on December 12. This date was then delayed until March 3, after legal appeals.

The government claimed that the falling cost of photovoltaics and the potential cost blowout of the FIT scheme were the reasons behind the dramatic reduction of the FIT. The solar industry opposed the sudden and dramatic cuts, claiming that they were in fact illegal as it was brought in before a government consultation period had concluded.

NGO Friends of the Earth along with the solar industry took the battle to the High Court, the Court of Appeal and then the Supreme Court over the issue and succeeded in delaying the measures. The law firm Prospect Law, which was successful in these previous cases, will represent the solar and construction firms in the new claim announced today.

17 companies are to be represented in the claim against the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

The claim is based not on the justification behind the government cuts, but rather the manner in which it was carried out, which saw public confidence in photovoltaics plummet and the number of installations drop by as much as 90%.

In a statement announcing the legal action, Simon Gillet from one of the claimants E-tricity said: "Last year should have been our year for growth, innovation, investment and training, but instead it was an ‘annus horriblus’ peppered with cut backs, customer confusion, part time working, stress and redundancies."

Gillet’s statement also indicates that the photovoltaic market in the UK has now stabilized and the new FIT regime secure.

Reacting to the legal claim, the opposition Labour Party’s spokesman said that the cuts had gone too far and were implemented too quickly. "Thousands of people lost their jobs, many businesses in the solar industry saw their order books dry up and the number of people installing solar panels slumped. Ministers must come clean about why they pushed ahead with their unlawful plans and what legal advice they got in the first place."

The forthcoming February edition of pv magazine features a special feature article on the UK solar market in 2013.

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Popular content

Mercedes-Benz testing new solar paint

02 December 2024 Mercedes-Benz said it is now evaluating a 20%-efficient, non-silicon photovoltaic coating that is significantly cheaper than conventional solar module...

Share

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.