Fighting FIT
The Judicial Review of the Department of Energy and
Climate Change's (DECC) Consultation on Feed-in Tariffs offers
the prospect of a temporary reprieve for Solar PV developers and
their customers, although, with DECC having lodged an application
for leave to appeal against the decision, the sector remains dogged
by uncertainty. DECC's application, together with the appeal
itself, if DECC is granted leave to appeal, will be heard on 13
January 2012.
In R (on the applications of Friends of the Earth Ltd
and others) v Secretary of State for Energy and Climate
Change the Court found that the introduction of changes to
the FITs Scheme which would apply to plant completed before the
changes had come into effect would be illegal. Since the proposal
to make the changes was unlawful and had an immediate and
significant impact, the proposal itself (and not just a decision
made following the Consultation process) was capable of Judicial
Review.
