Good news is exactly what the UK industry needed, after a bruising year of setbacks, including an apparent lowering of government’s medium-term ambitions for the technology amid growing political concerns about the country’s rising energy costs.

While the gladness of Davey’s December tidings remains debatable, no-one could accuse the government of slacking in the run-up to the holiday season — as it delivered a string of revelations with enormous implications for renewables in 2014.

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