The House of Commons has published a Commons Library Standard Note that aims to summarise the entire solar feed-in tariff fiasco to date. The note is intended to fully brief members and their staff over the history of the feed-in tariff for solar PV electricity generation after the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) handling of the scheme was ruled as illegal by the High Court and the Court of Appeal, which upheld the decision.
The note explains that the unexpectedly high uptake of solar PV within the scheme meant that Government was compelled to take action to protect the wider feed-in tariff budget. The document also outlines DECC’s decision to include the feed-in tariff budget within public expenditure in lieu of an official classification from the Office of National Statistics.
The paper summarises critics’ disapproval of DECC’s handling of the scheme, commenting on the treatment of the industry as well as looking into the damning select committees report that lambasted DECC’s inadequate impact assessment and unfair setting of a December 12 deadline for changes to come into effect.
The full document can be read here.
