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The High Court has ruled that government cuts to the subsidies for large scale solar farms are legal.
A judicial review, called for by four solar companies, has ruled in favour of the changes by the government to close the Renewable Obligation (RO) support scheme for solar projects over 5MW.
The review was requested by Lark Energy, Orta Solar Farms, Solarcentury and TGC Renewables in May of this year, after the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) announced it was closing the RO regime to projects over 5MW from 1 April 2015, forcing developer to compete for contracts for difference (CfDs).
A representative for the four solar companies from Prospect Law said the proposal “as it originally stood closed RO certificates for solar in an unlawful way”.
In October, Decc announced a grace period for projects which had made “significant financial commitments” by 13 May 2014, giving them a completion deadline of 31 March 2015.
A statement on behalf of the solar companies said: “We are pleased that as a result of our court action, Decc moved significantly during the consultation period and the proposed grace period criteria set out in the May consultation were relaxed in the consultation response on the 2 October.
“In court the judge agreed that Decc’s action had a retrospective impact, but ruled that it was fair for Decc to set a qualification deadline identical to the very first day of the consultation period, causing wasted capex for some developers.
“This ruling may have serious implications for the wider energy industry. We are considering whether to seek leave to appeal and will make a further statement in due course.”
Responding to the court ruling, a Decc spokesperson said: “We welcome today’s judgment. Given the unexpectedly high levels of large-scale solar PV deployment we had to take steps to protect our budget in order to protect consumer bills.
“Solar continues to be an important part of the UK’s energy mix and we want to see this success story continue.”
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