DECC has reintroduced Energy Bill amendments setting out the grace period eligibility criteria for wind farms seeking accreditation under the Renewables Obligation.
Energy minister Lord Bourne tabled the amendments ahead of tomorrow’s report stage debate in the House of Lords.
Despite attracting widespread opprobrium from peers and the wind industry, the government appears to be sticking with RO grace period criteria condemned last week as not being “fit for purpose”.
Under the Bill’s ‘approved development condition’, DECC will allow projects that successfully appeal against refusal or non-determination by a planning committee to be eligible for the RO grace period, as long as the appeal was made by 18 June.
As the draft Bill stands, however, DECC will disallow projects given positive planning determination by local authorities by 18 June yet did not receive a Section 106 or Section 75 decision notice until after the deadline.
DECC has tweaked the Bill’s ‘investment freezing condition’, which permits RO projects meeting grace period criteria that have struggled to raise finance an extra nine months to connect to the grid.
The Bill now requires developers to have evidence of a letter or other document, dated on or before 28 days after Royal Assent, from a recognised lender confirming was not prepared to provide funding.
The previous tabled list of amendments gave developers set out 1 May 2016 as the cut-off date.
Image: UK Parliament building and Big Ben (Wikimedia Commons)
