The government has lost its appeal against a judge's ruling that its cuts to solar power subsidies were illegal, suggesting thousands of homes and businesses will now be able to claim the higher payments.
Three court of appeal judges unanimously rejected the appeal from Chris Huhne, the then secretary of state at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), who said he would be taking the case on to the supreme court. "We want to maximise the number of installations that are possible within the available budget rather than use available money to pay a higher tariff to half the number of installations," he said.
The government announced proposed cuts to the solar feed-in tariff payments in October. Ministers said the cost of solar panels had dropped and unless the subsidy was also cut, funding for a range of low-carbon technologies would be rapidly exhausted. But in December, a high court judge ruled that the government's handling of the cuts was "legally flawed".
Encouraging the development of renewable energy is a key part of the government's plans to meet the UK's legally binding cuts in carbon emissions, although wind power receives far more support than solar power.
Read the full article on the Guardian website.
Visit DECC for further details on the Feed-in Tariffs.
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