The government has gone ahead with a last ditch attempt to overturn a High Court hearing that ruled plans to cut the Feed-in Tariff retrospectively were illegal.
The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) confirmed it had appealed to the Supreme Court after it lost a hearing in the Court of Appeal last month. It prolongs by several months the uncertainty about what level of support solar arrays installed between 12 December 2011 and 3 March 2012 will receive.
"We want to see the available funding spread as far and wide as possible making FiTs a scheme for the many not a scheme for the few, supporting sustainable jobs in solar and in a whole range of small scale renewables," a DECC spokesman said.
If DECC wins its appeal, it is possible that lower tariffs could be applied to installations that became eligible for FiTs during that period. It has already confirmed lower tariffs will take effect from this April for solar installations registered on or after 3 March.
Solar Trade Association chairman Howard Johns was disappointed with DECC's decision to appeal, as it meant more uncertainty and if DECC won its appeal, it would undermine confidence among investors in renewables, he said.
"The solar sector has been struggling to cope with the number of consultations around the Feed-in Tariff this year and the uncertainty they have caused - surely now is the time to move on from this situation."
Renewable Energy Association chief executive Gaynor Hartnell also urged people to move on and "focus on the bigger picture".
"The recent consultation on Feed-in Tariffs has expanded the available budget and the level of ambition on display. The Feed-in Tariff programme should really be expanded further still, as a means of enabling many more industrial sized projects to come to the fore and using a range of technologies, not just solar."