The feed in tariff (FiT) is set to see a rate change in May, Ofgem has announced.

Luckily, the change in rates is not set to affect homeowners, but businesses across the UK should look to access the deal before the change is implemented on May 1st 2013.

For businesses with a solar panel system that produces of 50kW, the reductions in returns via FiT are to drop by 3.5 per cent.

This will see installations of 50-100kW and 100-150kW drop down to 11.1p from 11.5p and systems of 150-250kW see a reduction from 11p to 10.62p.

However, for systems over 250, Standalone and failed EPC, a reduction from 7.1p to 6.85p will be seen.

Changes have been made as part of the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s (DECC) controversial automatic degression model.

This model sees the rates of FiT change depending on increased demand. This is in order to keep the government scheme in line with national budgets.

Despite the take-up of technology not triggering automatic degression, the rates have still been cut, as the DECC stipulated that if no degression was seen after a period on nine months, an automatic 3.5 per cent degression would be implemented regardless.

The move is to prevent the industry from falling into the disrepute it has seen in previous years, as consumers became doubtful of the stability of the scheme.

In recent years however, the stability of the programme and the government’s commitment to renewable technology with further programmes, such as the Green Deal, has seen the installation of solar technology rise once again. The reduction in the price of the systems has also contributed to this recent improvement.

For businesses and commercial operations looking to take advantage of FiT, it is advised that they access the technology as soon as possible in order to obtain the higher rate of return.