UK Government to face questions and legal action of its handling of the FIT

Ove the last few days reports have been appearing that the UK government are to face a number of challenges to its decision to halve the FIT for PV installations which come online after 12th Dec 2011.

There are two select committees Environmental Audit Committee and Energy and Climate Change Committee which have called for evidence after launching an inquiry into the solar PV Feed-in Tariff and the management of the ongoing consultation to cut the cash subsidy in December. This is reported in a number of websites including http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/mps-call-for-evidence-of-ministers-handling-of-feedin-tariff-cuts-2773.aspx

There are also  two legal challenges to the decision to cut the tariff. One, brought by 'Friends of the Earth', is based on the fact that the governement is acting illegally in saying it will halve the tariff before its own consulation on the system is supposed to be completed on the 23rd December 2011. This story is covered by a large number of websites and is best searched for in your favourite search engine..

Seems that yet again some MP's have been caught by not thinking everything through before acting unilaterally.

New reduced FIT rates to arrive 5 months earlier than expected !

It is now in a couple of websites that I have seen that the Feed In Tariff rates will be reduced a lot sooner than originally anticipated.

Most people expected the change to occur in April for the new financial year. However, now the gov't is saying that the pot of money allocated for this scheme is running out quicker than planned.

The scheme was more popular than predicted with domestic installations exploding on the scene as people expected to cash in.

This means that you need to get any new installation signed off by the generating company before the 12th December 2011 to achieve the current rate of 43p/unit generated.

Any installation commissioned after that date (even if you have already paid a deposit with an installer) will drop to just 21p/unit generated.

Of course you will SAVE the same amount of money as you would under the old tariff, but the INCOME will now be less than half of what it was before.

The BBC News website has more on this at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15507750

There may still be other ways in which you can receive payments for using energy efficient or generating systems. Check out the Energy Saving Trusts website which has a database to check out your postcode - http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/