DECC confirm that the July FiT deadline will be pushed back.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change confirmed yesterday that they will delay the next round of cuts to the Fit, due to go ahead on July 1st 2012.

Energy minister Greg Barker posted on Twitter about DECCs intentions to delay the cuts, and the following day Secretary of State Ed Davey confirmed the news during questions.

This means that more people will have the opportunity to register new solar PV installations for the Feed in Tariff at the currently available rate of 21p/kWh for domestic sized systems. With the huge drops in solar panel prices over the past year, this tariff rate – which is index linked and guaranteed for 25 years – represents an annual return of around 8-10% on the installation cost.

With these kind of returns still available, it seems fairly clear that it is consumer uncertainty, based on the government’s recent mishandling of previous Feed in Tariff cuts, which has had a dampening on solar installations since the most recent rates came into effect in April.

DECC has yet to publish an official announcement on the cuts but we will keep you informed as soon as we have the latest information. Watch this space for further updates….