A Judicial Review against the Government has been launched by the industry as Energy Secretary, Ed Davey, has been accused of slamming the brakes on Britain’s fledging solar energy business.
Some of Britain’s largest solar businesses warn that Davey’s abrupt and unilateral withdrawal of support is unlawful, and may result in an embarrassing U-turn for the government in the run up to the General Election.
Nick Clegg is set to face embarrassment in regards to the unlawful policy change, as he repeatedly attempted to persuade renewable energy investors that the UK is a good, safe and stable place to invest in.
In the past three years legal action has been taken three times against the DECC’s unlawful solar policies. Davey’s department was issued with a compensation bill of up to £132m, after deciding to make cuts to the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) scheme. The scheme supports, small-scale solar mainly on residential properties, in 2012 there were sudden cuts which didn’t give solar installers enough time to react and were therefore ruled unlawful by the High Court. The minister in charge at the time, Greg Barker, resigned within just days of the court ruling.
The latest Judicial Review has accused the DECC and Davey of making the same mistake again. This time however the target is the Renewables Obligation (RO), a scheme which supports larger scale solar on roofs of industrial buildings or mounted on the ground. Plans have been announced by DECC to end the RO two years ahead of schedule. The scheme was supposed to bring certainty and confidence to the industry, however according to the Judicial Review the DECC has acted unlawfully.
As a result of the DECC’s actions a large amount of jobs could be lost and the solar industry will be robbed of hundreds of millions of business. Davey has been accused of basing costs on outdated figures and conducting a sham consultation, and arguing tax payers will end up paying the compensation bill that will cost hundreds of millions of pounds.
Sources
DECC
Water, Energy & Environment
