Nearly 300 people employed in the solar industry have lobbied Westminster calling for a re-think of the planned cuts to the Feed in Tariff (FiT), ahead of the commons debate today.
The group of campaigners from the Cut Don't Kill campaign targeted the coalition and MPs voicing the concerns of the industry following the announcement last month that the FiT payment for surplus solar electricity will reduce from 43p per kWh to 21p per kWh from 12 December.

Howard Johns, of the Solar Trade Association and the Cut Don't Kill campaign, told Building magazine: 'All of this is focused on getting David Cameron's attention, to get him to intervene and fix the problem that the Government has created.'

Three Liberal Democrat MPs have already signed an early day motion petitioning the Government to reconsider its plans and the timescale. Speaking to the magazine, Bob Russell MP for Colchester said: 'I have been doing what I can and continue to do so to try to salvage the tariff for community projects, schools and social housing.'

This is a sentiment echoed by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson who recently wrote to the Chancellor George Osborne, asking for the solar subsidy to remain at its current level so as to give the 'right signals to the market.'

In an excerpt from the letter, which was shown to the Financial Times, he said: 'A reduction of 50 per cent in the feed-in tariff effectively slowly suffocates the growth that this policy has so far encouraged.'

Organisers of the rally, say that the cuts, given with just six weeks notice, will put at risk tens of thousands of jobs in the solar industry. The rally was scheduled to take place ahead of the MPs debate on the Government proposals.

Commenting on the mass lobby, Gaynor Hartnell, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association (REA), said that although 'many companies and customers can live with the reduced tariff rates, it's the speed of implementation that has been so disruptive.'