High Court Dismisses Judicial Review Of Solar Subsidy Cut

After DECC announced that it was ending the Renewable Obligation (RO) scheme two years earlier than anticipated, four major UK solar companies decided to pursue the decision in the courts. Unlike the last challenge to the government's subsidy tinkering, the High Court has dismissed the complaint and ended the case.

TGC Renewables, Solarcentury, Orta Solar Farms and Lark Energy has stated they had the rug pulled from under them at the time of the announcement. Despite the judge agreeing with their argument that the move would have a retrospective impact on solar projects under development or in planning stages, the judge also felt that it was reasonable for DECC to set a qualification deadline.

Despite the loss the claimants are not completely dissatisfied as there was a sense that the legal process had raised issues that DECC had subsequently responded to.

Commenting on today's High Court judgement, a spokesman for Lark Energy, Solarcentury, TGC, and Orta said, "The decision to launch the JR was taken immediately following the 13 May announcement, which as it originally stood closed ROCs for solar in an unlawful way.

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 2nd October.

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."

The subsidy cut applies to all solar wind farms of more than 5MW capacity and comes into force on April 1 next year