The solar industry has been left confused and concerned following the Government’s plans to change their levels of subsidy in the Feed-in Tariff.

Speaking at the Solar Power UK event in Birmingham, Climate Change Minister Greg Barker told manufacturers: “I’m personally committed to ensuring that your industry can prosper in the longer term, sustaining green jobs at a critical time for our economy.”

However, the President of EMEA operations at Canadian Solar questioned the Government’s likely changes to the FiT, saying it may cause problems for the infant industry. Greg Sponoudakis said: “In my opinion, he’s opened a Pandora’s box of questions for the industry to ponder. He stated that the FIT will stay the same until April 1 2012 but I believe that in the meantime a new scheme will be devised that could create a huge unbalance in the industry.

“Judging by his comments regarding a new ‘energy efficiency standard’, it sounds as though this new scheme could tie the FIT to the energy efficiency of homes and buildings. Would this mean that only those living in newly built homes would be eligible and that if you have a Victorian building you would not?”