Four solar power companies are considering an appeal after losing a High Court battle to stop the Government ending a solar farm subsidy scheme early.
Mr Justice Green, sitting in London, threw out their claim that there had been an unlawful change of policy.
The companies warned their defeat could lead to job cuts and multimillion-pound losses, and have “serious implications for the wider energy industry”.
Solarcentury, TGC Renewables, Lark Energy and Orta Solar applied for judicial review over a policy change by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) cutting short the renewables obligation (RO) scheme for large-scale solar farms.
The RO scheme, introduced in 2002, was to run to 2017 but the change means it is now due to end in 2015.
The policy change was put forward in May after the Energy Secretary concluded the scheme had become too expensive.
A Decc spokeswoman said after the ruling: “We welcome today’s judgment. Given the unexpectedly high levels of large-scale solar PV deployment we had to take steps to protect our budget in order to protect consumer bills.”
The statement added: “Solar continues to be an important part of the UK’s energy mix and we want to see this success story continue.”
The RO scheme relates to solar photovoltaic systems (solar PV) with a generating capacity of more than five megawatts.
The companies contended they had received an assurance that the scheme would not close before 2017 “in recognition of the acknowledged need for operators to have a secure and stable legal and investment environment in which to plan”.
The judge said: “They submit that the bringing forward of the closure date pulls the rug from under their feet and thwarts their rights.”
Dismissing the case, the judge ruled: “No assurances were given at any point that the scheme would be maintained until 2017.”
The judge said the Government had made “clear and repeated representations“ to the effect that the scheme would remain in place.
But they were always subject to “the overriding risk that if uptake of the scheme was such that the Decc’s spending limits were exceeded then the scheme would have to be modified or curtailed in some way in order to bring expenditure back into line”.
Reacting to today’s decision, a spokesman for the four companies said: “We are pleased that as a result of our court action, the Decc moved significantly during the consultation period and the proposed grace period criteria set out in the May consultation were relaxed in the consultation response on October 2.
“In court the judge agreed that Decc’s action had a retrospective impact, but ruled that it was fair for Decc to set a qualification deadline identical to the very first day of the consultation period, causing wasted capex for some developers.
“This ruling may have serious implications for the wider energy industry. We are considering whether to seek leave to appeal and will make a further statement in due course.”
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