After a much-publicised campaign, the Government's drastic cut of the photovoltaic solar panel Feed-in Tariff (FIT) was deemed illegal in the High Court on December 21st. Mr Justice Mitting was highly critical of the way the cut had been imposed before the closing date of the public consultation on the very subject, which was set to close on December 23rd. Although it is highly likely that the Government will launch an appeal, the ruling was widely applauded as a victory for the solar industry.

This month’s well publicised cut in the Feed-in Tariff, from the highly lucrative 42.3p per kWh to 21p per kWh, has now been successfully challenged by Friends of the Earth (with support from two solar PV installation companies) which has secured the right to a High Court hearing. Their objective is to prove that the Government’s drastic reduction in the Tariff is unlawful and it should revert to the higher rate of 42.3p per kWh until the end of March 2012. See below for a link to the news article:

Well it’s been manic and at times a little stressful but the Beechdale Energy team have now completed the final residential installation before the Feed-in Tariff is set to change at midnight on Sunday. We trust that all the customers we have managed to service throughout the October-December period are satisfied with our installation and thank them for their patience. Welcome to the brave new world of Solar PV microgeneration.

There has been a huge amount of publicity about the death of the solar power industry since the announcement by Greg Barker, the Energy & Climate Change Minister that the Feed-in Tariff was to be halved on December 12th. Claims have been made by solar installers and the Solar Trade Association that 90% of the solar jobs created in the last two years would be lost - a total possibly of over 30,000 redundancies. But is the picture that bleak? Not here at Beechdale Energy.