Greg Barker, climate change minister, said that the government would seek an appeal as soon as possible following the decision at London’s High Court yesterday.
Environmental group Friends of the Earth and solar companies Solarcentury and HomeSun launched a legal challenge against a government decision to cut feed-in-tariff payments from 43p/kilowatt hour to 21p/kWh claiming it was unlawful as a consultation is still ongoing.
The reduced payments came in for solar photovoltaic schemes from December 12 despite the consultation into the changes not finishing until Friday 23 December. For social landlord PV schemes there is a further, deeper cut in April to 16.8p/kWh.
Mr Barker said: ‘We disagree with the court’s decision. We will be seeking an appeal and hope to secure a hearing as soon as possible. Regardless of today’s outcome, the current high tariffs for solar PV are not sustainable and changes need to be made in order to protect the budget which is funded by consumers through their energy bills.’