Under the feed-in-tariff scheme, individuals or developers who generate power from solar - or other renewable sources - receive payments from their energy supplier based on how much energy they generate to off-set installation. On Friday Greg Barker, Minister for Climate Change, announced a DECC proposal to cut the feed-in-tariff for medium sized solar developments by a 72%.
Ray Noble of the Renewable Energy Association, said: "This is an absolute disaster … no new projects will start if this proposal becomes law. This industry has been strangled at birth. The huge number of envisaged new jobs will disappear." Ken Moss, CEO of solar power developermO3 Power, said: "A buoyant solar power sector would have stimulated at least 90,000 jobs by the time Government spending cuts really start to bite later this year if the feed-in-tariffs had remained where they were."
Industry specialists cite Germany as an example where feed-in-tariffs have been successfully employed to build the most developed renewable power industry in the world and create 340,000 new jobs.
