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.
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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.