Proposals to reduce the financial support available to larger scale solar projects have been announced by the Government today.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change says the move is designed to protect financial support for homes, communities and small businesses.

Energy Minister Greg Barker said: “These proposals aim to rebalance the scheme and put a stop to the threat of larger-scale solar soaking up the cash. The FITs scheme was never designed to be a profit generator for big business and financiers.

“Britain’s solar industry is a vital part of our renewables future and our growing green economy. The new tariff rates we’re putting forward today for consultation will provide a level of support for all solar PV and ensure a sustained growth path for industry.”

Reducing the tariff would give the industry more stability, added Mr Barker: “Taking a pro-active approach to changing tariffs will allow us to avoid the boom-and-bust approach we have seen in other countries and enable us to support more homes and community schemes, and a wider range of technologies such as wind, hydro and anaerobic digestion.”

The consultation follows the launch in February of a fast-track review into how the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) work for solar photovoltaic (PV) over 50 kW.

Over 27,000 installations have been registered for the FIT scheme to date.

Installations which are already accredited for FITs will not be affected.

The proposed rates for all new PV projects over 50kW are:

– 9p/kWh for 50kW to 150kW

– 15p/kWh for 150kW to 250kW

– 8.5p/kWh for 250kW to 5MW and stand-alone installations

These compare with the tariffs that would otherwise apply from 1 April of:

– 32.9p/kWh for 10kw to 100kw

– 30.7/kWh for 100kw to 5MW and stand-alone installations