Businesses considering installing Solar PV are all rushing to install before March 2012, though for some even that may be too late.

At a meeting at the House of Commons today between industry representatives, the Government reiterated its position on the Comprehensive Feed in Tariff review.

Rachel Solomon-Williams, Head of the Feed-in Tariff Review confirmed today that the Comprehensive Review is underway in the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), although she was unable to confirm details of when it would be revealed, or what the rates will look like.

It was however established that DECC has to operate within the Treasury-imposed, fixed envelope. It was made clear that if this budget overruns, the funding will need to come from DECC, for which, unfortunately, there is no budget.

She also reiterated that there are no planned changes before April 1, 2012 “unless earlier action is deemed necessary,”

And it is the fact that the Government consistently keep repeating that phrase at ever more frequent intervals that is causing major unease with potential customers.

After all, many still remember that phrase from the recent fast-track review, which ended in tariff rates as low as 8.5p for large scale projects, the concern is that all project over 10kWp could now also be affected and the rate drop  to a similar level.

Whilst the Government wouldn’t be pushed further, the chatter in the room and the corridors afterwards was that the most likely outcome was a 10% cut on the first band up to 4kWp, possibly the same up to 10kWp, a heavier reduction (and a new band) between 10kWp and 20kWp and a swingeing reduction for the 20kWp to 50Kwp sized systems. The chatter also suggested that the upper end of the cuts may be introduced as early as January 2012, in the same way that the Fast Track review effectively killed off all the projects over 50kWp, a rapid implementation of a >20kWp band would effectively kill off nearly all the commercial schemes currently under consideration, meaning that the only place left to install Solar PV was homes and small businesses.

Hence the rush to get systems installed before the end of this year.

Watch this space..