Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Court dismisses solar panel firm’s £8 million challenge against city council

Solar panels at Bridge of Don Academy
Solar panels at Bridge of Don Academy

A judge has thrown out a solar panel firm’s £8 million claim against Aberdeen City Council.

Our Generation Ltd brought the action against the local authority at the Court of Session in Edinburgh.

The firm had entered into an agreement with the council to install the green equipment on council-owned buildings and then issued termination notices via email.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


They argued they had validly terminated the contracts and alleged the council should pay to remove all the equipment at a cost of £8 million.

That claim has now been dismissed in court and the council will not have to pay for the panels to be removed.

In November 2016 it emerged the local authority shelled out £275,000 after the energy systems were switched off over fire fears – and then the company involved had to be paid for loss of earnings.

The council entered into an agreement with Mark Group Ltd and Our Generation Ltd for the supply and installation of photovoltaic (PV) panels to 72 local authority buildings.

Under the terms of the deal, signed in April 2012, the council had an obligation to pay loss of generation income to Our Generation Solar.

But the agreement also meant the council had to compensate the firm when the systems had to be switched off due to health and safety fears.

Members decided to order an investigation into how the deal had been entered ahead of a report being prepared for next week’s finance committee.

When approved in 2011, it was predicted that the authority’s fuel bills would be slashed by £100,000 a year.

Dismissing the action at the Court of Session, Lady Wolffe ruled that the termination notice was invalid.

In the judgement she wrote: “The reasonable recipient would not have understood the email (and supporting documentation) as communicating (the firm’s) intention to treat those unpaid sums as constituting a default and which, if unpaid after 20 Banking Days, such as to entitle it to terminate the site agreement with immediate effect.”

She concluded that she would reserve the matter of legal expenses until a later date.

Last night a spokesman for the council declined to comment on the ruling.