GOVERNMENT plans to cut subsidies for solar panels on homes were ruled legally flawed by the High Court.
The decision was a victory for environmental campaigners Friends of the Earth (FoE) and two solar companies, Solarcentury and HomeSun, who challenged the proposals and said they were creating “huge economic uncertainty”.
The cuts provoked a storm of protest when they were announced last month, including from firms in Merseyside’s burgeoning solar panel industry.
Eco Environments, founded in Bootle, which was rapidly expanding across the country, warned: “Slashing the payments by 51% is the economics of the madhouse.
“Families were told they faced steeper fuel bills, because local councils would be forced to abandon plans to install panels that were expected to save them £190 a year.”
The controversy followed energy secretary Chris Huhne’s proposals to slash feed-in tariff subsidies (FITs) from 43.3p per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) of electricity produced to 21p per kWh, from April, 2012.
The FIT payments are made to households and communities that generate green electricity through solar panels.
However, installations had to be completed and registered by December 12, in order to receive the higher 43.3p rate for the full 25 years contract.
But Mr Justice Mitting, sitting at the High Court in London yesterday, said the minister was “proposing to make an unlawful decision”.
After the High Court decision was announced, Friends of the Earth’s executive director, Andy Atkins, said: “These botched and illegal plans have cast a huge shadow over the solar industry, jeopardising thousands of jobs. We hope that this ruling will prevent government ministers rushing through damaging changes to clean energy subsidies – giving solar firms a much-needed confidence boost.
“Ministers must now come up with a sensible plan that protects the UK’s solar industry and allows cash-strapped homes and businesses to free themselves from expensive fossil fuels by plugging into clean energy.
“Solar payments should fall in line with falling installation costs, but the speed of the Government’s proposals threatened to devastate the entire industry.”
