A cap on funding for solar panel projects which disappointed many has been greeted more practically by one firm in the solar supply chain.

Larger solar projects won’t get cash from the renewable funding scheme under new plans announced yesterday.

Jerry Hamilton, Director of Renewables and Energy Solutions at Rexel UK said: “In an ideal world, there would be sufficient financial schemes in place to support the growth of both rooftop PV and large-scale solar.”

He was more optimistic about the new subsidy cut: “By capping the funds that go into large scale solar farms, the Government is redressing the balance to provide greater support for the generation of energy where it is being used, in other words on the rooftops of homes and commercial buildings.”

Analysts said plans to limit subsidies don’t come as a surprise given recent “rhetoric” from DECC.

Adrian Scholtz, head of renewables at KPMG said: “This reinforces the Government’s desire to move away from solar PV installations on agricultural land and move towards commercial rooftop installations.”

Optimism from some firms hasn’t softened the solar trade body STA’s critical stance.

CEO Paul Barwell said: “The Government is actually moving to slow down solar’s cost reductions towards grid parity.”

He suggested it would be difficult for developers to switch from fields to rooftops without changing another funding source, the Feed-in Tariff.