The UK government is preparing to appeal against a high court decision that branded its plans to rush through cuts to solar tariff payments as "legally flawed", leaving the industry confused over the current level of incentives for new solar installations.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) will on Wednesday 4th Jan file an appeal against last month's ruling by Mr Justice Mitting, who said it would be illegal for the government's proposed cuts to have an "effective date" of 12 December, two weeks before the consultation officially ended on 23 December.
Mitting said DECC had until 4 January to request an appeal, but warned that any appeal would have limited chances of success.
Climate minister Greg Barker confirmed on Twitter that his department would meet the appeal deadline, reiterating that the government remains committed to halving the level of incentives available for solar installations to ensure the scheme does not exceed its budget.
DECC has consistently warned that delaying the proposed cuts to incentives could result in the feed-in tariff scheme exceeding its spending cap – a scenario that some solar industry insiders fear will result in deeper cuts to incentives from April.
The government had even warned that the scheme could exceed its spending cap by April this year if changes are not brought into effect quickly. It now remains unclear if Mitting's ruling will result in the scheme going bust.
There was further confusion after a document published by DECC appeared to suggest it had delayed the cuts to 1 April.
