Press Release

The Government today argued in the Appeal Court that it had not acted ‘unlawfully’ in proposing a date for a cut to the FIT mid-way through a consultation and effectively imposing a retrospective tariff. This follows legal action by Friends of the Earth, HomeSun and Solarcentury, and a Judicial Review in December which found against the Government.

Daniel Green, CEO of HomeSun said ‘The government’s unlawful action at the end of November caused an installation spike that cost £100m to the FIT budget, it caused job losses and it’s brought uncertainty to the market. Poor management has meant that most of the FITs budget for the next two years had been spent by mid-November 2011.

‘Solar is a £billion industry which generates over £270million per year to Treasury for public services – way in excess of any short term subsidy.’

Daniel Green continued ‘Government’s initial proposals for a new two-tier Feed-in Tariff discriminated against providers of free solar systems to ordinary hard working people without £10k to splash out on buying a system. Solar should not be just for the rich, and we urge the government to deliver a Tariff which works for the country and helps get Britain back on its feet.’

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Notes to Editors

Government’s initial consultation had proposed a generation tariff of 21p to buyers of solar systems under 4kWp, and 16.8p to so-called ‘aggregators’. ‘Rent a roof’ schemes, which provide free solar systems for individual homeowners, appear to have been included in this category. The costs/benefits, however, mean that ‘Rent a Roof’ providers need receive the same tariff as individual homeowners if such free solar systems are still to be provided. If a homeowner buys, they receive free electricity and a tax-free FiT. Under ‘Rent a Roof’ the homeowner receives free electricity from a free solar system, maintained for 25 years; the provider receives the FiT and pays tax on the income.

About HomeSun

HomeSun, the solar specialist, has been making it easy for thousands of homeowners to generate their own energy with Free Solar and SolarShare, with free maintenance for 25 years.

HomeSun has a big vision that is almost breathtakingly simple: we want to revolutionize the way that people power their homes by making domestic renewable energy commonplace, easy and affordable, starting with Solar PV. At HomeSun, we would like to think that homes that are not self-sufficient in some way will be the odd ones out, not the other way round. In the not too distant future, most homes could be able to produce some of their own energy in some way - energy that is clean, that saves money, improves the homes' value and cuts carbon emissions.

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