Latest on the court challenge!!!

[sambotc]

Give him credit though, according to facebook he chooses his friends wisely!

 

[SolarCity]

I have to strongly disagree.

The STA's response wasn't a full frontal attack - it was a defence. And it was a defence that the DECC were warned about well in advance. To point out the legal issues with the DECC changes was the only response we could have. Are you honestly suggesting that the government should be able to wreck our industry and that we should be worried about upsetting them in case they don't listen to us in the future? This shouldn't distract from the EPC and the FITs budget issue - they should run in line with it.

I am strongly of the opinion that 21p is FAR too low to keep a satisfactory growth in the PV market and I also believe that Huhne and Co. know this fully well. Barker has begun to show his cards - he is now openly criticising the FIT scheme and is actually threatening to cut the whole scheme. All this from the greenest government ever?

I don't like politicians and I never will. And I will never tolerate being lied to by multi-millionaire plastic faced elfine rats like Barker and his mates. If they came to power announcing that they would decimate the solar industry and then proceeded to act like they did then I could have little quarrel with them - instead they moan about Milliband and blame it all on him - as if a massive uptake in green energy is suddenly a bad thing.

It is not a case of messing about with court challenges - We expect our government to act in a way in which such an action isn't necessary. We certainly don't expect them to prolong the misery by lodging appeal after appeal. And we certainly want them to know that we won't lie down when they kick us just because they can't do their own jobs properly. Frankly, if it took another 18 months to get things sorted then I'd still be up for the fight.

It bothers me when people worry about 'antagonising' the DECC. They are public servants - not our masters. If they fail to act in a way in which I would expect then I will bloody well tell them so.

My support is with the STA. The thought of Reza Shaybani proudly waving his 'C' rating victory paper around like a modern day Chamberlain utterly sickens me. I hope that a few of 'his' members feel the same way and let him know.

The DECC didn't ask for my opinion nor anyone elses on this forum when they decided to wreck the FIT with just 6 weeks notice.

 

[The Solar King]

Sorry I cannot agree with this. You completely miss the point of why the court case is so important. Without certainty that there can be no retrospective action there can be no certainty over future investment in the industry. Unless it is firmly established that DECC acted unlawfully we are for ever at the mercy of arbitary decisions to the detriment of all.


If you even began to understand the work the STA have been undertaking in the background to protect and promote the industry for far longer than the BPVA have been in existence you would take a different view. Do you really want to belong to a so called organisation that is negotiating ongoing cuts rather than one working to create a long term sustainable future for the industry?

There are still major policy issues to be resolved: It is still unclear that FITs should even be considered part of Public Spending, especially in light of the European Court ruling that the German FITs are not.

We have to work with DECC but not on the basis of appeasement. Do not under-estimate who your enemies are and the influence they hold. The long term relationship you describe sounds like brown nosing and will get you nowhere. Right now I do not have the time to explain the systemic problems within DECC and their causes. Needless to say those who chose the strategy did so from years of experience and very sound advice.

Had it not been for the hard hard work and sacrifice of those in the STA and Our Solar Future, going back many months, we would all be on 9p.

 

[SolarCity]

This graph tells you all you need to know about DECC, Huhne and Barker.

The arrogance of politicians is truly staggering. Did you watch Barker being interviewed on television and blaming this fiasco on Milliband? A full 20 months after taking the coalition took power?

They are incompetent liars and I certainly won't sit back and clap along like a demented seal in the hope that they don't do anything even more stupid and implement the 'C' rating.

 

[MorganPVI]

It is shocking to think that any sensible person supports the way the DECC have handled this situtation.

BPVA and their leader seem to be cosying up to Gregory, why? They obvoiusly see a profit in it for them.

 

[Earthstore]

May I chip in?
No one in the Industry keeps taking the Government to court, that only happened once and they lost, they took themselves back to appeal, even though the Judge advised against it, and they lost again, and were given a "right telling off" and again were not given right to appeal, so now that's 4 judges informing the government that they are wrong.
So what were Barking and plumes words.... We disagree with all of you and are going to the supreme court.
So sorry, the Government are to blame now not the Industry.
It takes a man to admit that he is wrong, a boy will just blame somebody else.

 

[PAGE Renewable]

Another anecdotal - after yesterday's flurry of calls, today nothing, and the customer I went to see today after he phoned yesterday's first words were "It's still up in the air then...", and our suppliers expected "rush" did not materialise. Make of it what you will....

 

[PAGE Renewable]

View attachment 10233
This graph tells you all you need to know about DECC, Huhne and Barker.

The arrogance of politicians is truly staggering. Did you watch Barker being interviewed on television and blaming this fiasco on Milliband? A full 20 months after taking the coalition took power?

They are incompetent liars and I certainly won't sit back and clap along like a demented seal in the hope that they don't do anything even more stupid and implement the 'C' rating.

....and that graph could just as well be the stress levels suffered by PV installers in 2011, or if inverted the consumer confidence levels instilled by the current policies.

 

[SRE]

I've just lost a job we were 99% sure of getting because I had to ring them and tell them some muppets were buying up all the panels and they felt they needed to make a quick decision (they need small salt mist tested panels ie Sanyo). That quick decision was unless there was some certainty in the industry they weren't going ahead.

I don't know if I'm more annoyed with peeps buying everything up and selling at 43p or the sodding government for yet more uncertainty. I'd just begun to feel like we were settling down a bit :furious3:

 

[Somecamel]

Not the only problem with 'the muppets buying all the panels'.

Wholesale prices will go up- you make no money on your installs.

I'm telling all my customers I cannot guarantee the panel until they are ready to proceed.

I then ring them and make the order online (SEGEN) and confirm it.

 

[Somecamel]

Something to do with background of chairman I think. Here is some biog:

Reza Shaybani is a Serial entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in managing technology-focused companies in the optical disc manufacturing equipment and semiconductor industries in Europe and Middle East. For the past 5 years Reza has been involved in the solar PV industry as the Managing Director of Scheuten Solar Middle East and Solar Technology Centre in the UAE, founder of Solarjobs.com a global job board in the solar industry, Managing Director of System Photonics and Director of The Electric Roof Company in the UK.
In 2010, Reza and a group of companies with interest in the UK solar PV market (the founding members) formed the British Photovoltaic Association.

Obviously wrote this himself. Don't look at his facebook page, you will puke.

Without being racist, what does this person know about UK politics?

Whoops. Just looked at his Facebook page

He likes Guns, Cars and loose women

 

[pwboston]

dont we all :drool5:

 

[powervan]

i cant believe all the kits gone? i think they didnt have much kit anyway ! a few people bought up stuff on first anouncement but clients wont be happy when they read the truth ! whats the odds on it staying at 43.3p who is a bookmaker out there! suppliers want rid of kit so silly emails STOCK going fast seems to work! all i no is i dont want garage full of kit !!

 

[Gavin A]

all the kit's not gone, just certain makes / models eg Sanyo & Hyundai. Plenty of most other kit around as far as I can see.

 

[Gavin A]

I got emailed a copy of a guide DECC seem to have released to their views on the Feed In Tariff debacle / court cases.


It's a bit odd, some of it seems half finished, and it seems to have a section in there about their damage limitation strategy that I'm fairly sure they didn't mean to still be in it.


I've stuck it online in 2 parts as it's a bit long.


DECC Feed In Tariff court action briefing part 1
DECC Feed In Tariff court action briefing part 2

apologies if someone's already posted this up.

 

[TedM]

From part 2:

"There are a number of reasons for our decision to pursue a further appeal. Key is the fact that the current tariffs for solar PV are not sustainable. We estimate that the additional cost to consumers of the current high tariffs continuing to be available until 2 March (for the next 25 years) would be around £1.5bn (real, discounted)."

That is no basis on which to appeal against the current finding. The appeal can only be on grounds of a mis-interpretation of the law - not running out of money.

Also the answer in Q&A to "Haven’t you already overspent the budget?" is a total non-answer. The data referred to (in answer 4 to the select committee) is only based on data to 27th November 2011, which completely ignores the remaining installs up to the 12th December deadline - a further 55,000 systems. And it also allows for zero more installs in the subsequent years. The budget is blown.

 

[TedM]

Data I'm referencing is here (in case that isn't clear)

House of Commons - HC 1605 Energy and Climate Change and Environmental Audit Committees: Supplementary written evidence submitted by the Department of Energy and Climate Change

This also shows that DECC are basing assumptions on there being an energy efficiency component in the new FiTs - either EPC 'C' or Green Deal.

 

[The Solar King]

More on on Solar Century resignation from BPVA at Business Green:

Solar sector split after trade body backs DECC feed-in tariff appeal - 27 Jan 2012 - News from BusinessGreen

The saddest bit is the fact the BPVA went their own way rather than supporting a unified position with the rest of the industry. I still have difficulty grasping the level of their stupidity. They could have made a positive contribution, but instead are contributing to the destruction of the industry.

 

[SolarCity]

Player

If you can watch this for 10 minutes without pushing your thumb through your eyeballs in frustration then you're doing well.

Chris Huhne's answer to every question is "This flawed scheme blah blah blah that the leader of the opposition blah blah blah saving the consumer blah blah blah."

This video is just the kind of reason why I utterly totally politicians. The way they avoid answering questions is diabolical and they should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

I'm sick of government after government blaming problems on the 'previous government' as if that gives them carte blanche to do whatever they bloody well want.

 

[SibertSolar]

We know Reza Shaybani from way back when he was involved in other industry sectors that Sibert has history with......all I can say is that I am not surprised with the recent turn of events regarding BPVA and DECC etc.....