This morning the solar pv industry heard that the Court of Appeal has ruled unanimously to uphold the High Court judgment that the government’s decision to impose an early cut-off date for qualifying for the original Feed-in Tariff was unlawful. The celebrations were somewhat muted, however, with DECC countering that it will be seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court. 

As things stand at the moment, instead of the controversial 12th December deadline, a new date of 3rd March, announced last week by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, comes into force. Those households who installed solar PV systems after 12th December will now benefit from the higher FIT rate of 43p (unless DECC wins its appeal to the Supreme Court).

Installations completed after 3rd March but before April 1st will only get the higher FIT rate until April 1st, after which their rate falls to 21p, guaranteed for 25 years. The rate paid for exported electricity will continue to be 3.1p. And for installations after April 1st – the waters are as murky as ever. If the government wants to cut the tariff further, which seems likely given that its FIT budget is still under pressure, it will need to announce this at least 40 days beforehand – no later than 9th February.

The government has previously said that all installations registered ahead of the 1st April will receive 21p as a minimum, whatever happens with the court case. The issue that is still affected by the government’s Supreme Court appeal, however, is which installations will receive the original 43p – those registered before the 12th December or those registered before 3rd March?

The government is also looking to reduce uptake of the FIT by proposing imposing new energy efficiency standards for FIT installations after April 1st which will be hard for many households to meet. And its decision to seek permission to appeal will be viewed by many as a subtle way of preventing another mini-gold rush up to March 3rd by continuing to sow the seeds of uncertainty – but it will also distract it from the more urgent matter of fixing the FIT for the future.

According to Good Energy CEO Juliet Davenport, the credibility of the way the FIT budget is set has been seriously damaged: “The government must reform the tariff to prevent this boom-and-bust situation from happening again.  FIT is a great way to give people more control of their energy bills, so it’s no surprise that the scheme has been popular- it should not be a victim of its own success.”

For the full lowdown on today’s ruling, visit the FIT section of our website. Whatever the eventual outcome, Good Energy remains confident that we’ll be able to deliver the same industry-topping service standards our energy supply customers have come to expect to our FIT customers too.