The UK government has lost a appeal to overturn a High Court ruling which deemed the timing of its decision to cut subsidies for solar panels on homes as unlawful. The government’s only remaining option is to taking the case to the Supreme Court. The High Court had ruled that Department of Energy and Climate Change’s cut to the solar Feed-In Tariff (FIT) was legally flawed.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker last week presented to Parliament the same subsidy cut proposal to take effect from March 3 instead, which would solve the timing issue raised in court.

“Win, lose or draw today, important we move forward together, drive down costs and step up deployment,” Barker tweeted on Wednesday.

Unless the government decides to appeal again and succeeds in overturning the ruling, solar panel installers will see subsidies halved to 21 pence per kilowatt-hour from March 3 instead of December 12 for installations smaller than 4 kilowatts (kW)

The uptake has been much greater than anticipated, and in an effort to prevent state funds earmarked for renewable energy to run out early, the government proposed last October to drastically reduce the FIT rates.