Friday 13th solar judgement day?

Today is the day the solar photovoltaic (PV) industry has been waiting for, or at least anticipating its arrival.

There is no avoiding the date set, to establish whether the Government’s appeal to the court’s decision that their actions in reducing the Feed-In Tariff (FIT) two weeks before the consultation deadline, is Friday 13th (unlucky for some). Whilst there has been a split in opinion for the solar industry between those that are pleading for another solar victory and those who simply would like Greg Barker and the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to win for the sake of getting back to work.

No matter what the outcome is, there is a lot of apprehension in the air.

Should the Government lose it’s appeal today, many fear that it could prolong the uncertainty with the Government taking their appeal to the Supreme Court. Also many fear that today’s decision may result in further uncertainty, no matter what the outcome is.

There has been a call by many solar PV firms to come up with a compromise with DECC in order to protect the budget available to the FITs, whilst others believe that the Government should increase the pot available to those signing up to the FIT.

There is no question that the Government should be depending on the popularity of solar, to not only meet it’s renewable targets, but also because the industry alone brought in £330 million last year in income and corporation tax, and VAT, compared to the FIT scheme which cost £110 million (statistics from Friends of the Earth and Element Energy).

As the court is in full progress, the JHS Solar Solutions’ team will be avidly keeping an eye on every news source available, keeping our clients and followers up to date with the news as it happens.

Good luck to the solar industry! We are all hoping for a fair outcome which will enable confidence to be restored in the Government’s FIT scheme, and the solar industry to get back on track with a clear path.