One thing is certain about the Feed in Tariff at the moment – there is currently a lot of uncertainty!
FIT rates were not originally scheduled to be changed before 1st April 2012, yet at the end of October, in launching a consultation on the FIT scheme, the Government announced significant cuts to the FIT rates to come into effect on the 12th December 2011. This date was before the December 23rd closing date of the consultation period.
In a case heard in the High Court on 21st December – the judge agreed that the proposals to cut FIT payments before the official consultation closed were unlawful. DECC lodged an appeal against this decision. The Court of Appeal heard this case on January 13th and came back rejecting the appeal on January 25th. Following this failure, DECC announced: “The Court of Appeal has upheld the High Court ruling on FITs albeit on different grounds – we disagree and are seeking permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.” No formal appeal has yet been lodged.
While all this was happening, on January 19th DECC laid before Parliament an order which, regardless of the outcome of the appeal process, will set FIT rates for PV systems with an eligibility date after 3rd March 2012 to the lower levels as published in the consultation document.
So …
- if the Government wins on appeal, we are where we were before legal action began, i.e. the Government will continue with the consultation process, DECC will respond to the consultation, and FIT rates are very likely to drop to the rates listed in the consultation document.
- If the Government does not win on appeal, then the 43p tariff looks set to remain in place for all registered installations until 3rd March.
Given all this, about the only thing we can state for certain is that any PV system installed from 12th December will get a FIT payment of at least those values published in the consultation document (e.g. 21p/kWh for 0 – 4kWp retrofit installations).
