Council chiefs axe free green power for Dorset schools

It comes after the government controversially announced that there will be an earlier cut off point of December, instead of March 2012, for the government subsidy paid out to panel users.

Going ahead with the panel installation would have meant a 50 per cent reduction in the rate of payments given to the council and the tax payer would have ended up footing the bill.

It will come as a serious blow for the 25-30 schools that were shortlisted to have free green energy from now on.

But the new 21p/kWh FiT rate would have given the council a £60,000 projected loss – or £2,000 per school.

The council were forced to make the decision just days before the installation contracts were about to be awarded.

Robert Gould, County Council Cabinet member for environment, said: “In May 2011 Dorset County Council's Cabinet approved £1m Public Works Loan Board borrowing to invest in solar photovoltaic (PV) installations on schools and public buildings.

“The project would have reduced carbon dioxide emissions, provided local jobs and generated a small financial contribution to Dorset County Council's budget at this time of financial constraint.”

The Govern-ment’s decision has been met with serious opposition from campaign group Friends of the Earth, who are threatening legal action unless the government amends its proposals by 4pm on Friday.

Coun Gould said the decision has “unfortunately made the PV project commercially unviable.”

He added: “Therefore the Cabinet reluctantly took a decision on November 2 to halt the PV project, at a point just before the solar panel installation contracts were about to be awarded.

As things stand we hadn’t yet signed any contracts or committed to the installations.

This means that our investment at this point has been minimal.

“Our plans for progressing with this matter are now on hold and we won’t sign any contracts unless the government restores the original deadline of March 31, 2012.”