Britain said last week that, despite protests from the industry, it would reduce support tariffs for large-scale solar plants starting August 1, attempting to avoid the creation of a large number of new commercial solar farms that would compete with homes for funding. Ronan O'Regan, director of energy and utilities at consultancy PwC, said that the move would allow the government to focus on the smaller end of the market, as the reduction would only affect plants producing more than 50 kilowatts. However, she added that "it's going to make delivery of large-scale solar projects in the UK very difficult, if not impossible."The move, less than a year after Britain announced the subsidy, reduces the tariff to 8.5 pence from 29.3 pence, and spares homes and small businesses from cuts. "Had we not acted urgently to reduce tariffs the whole feed-in tariff scheme would have been entirely swamped," said Climate Change Minister Greg Barker, who added that the UK could have ended up with a "Spanish-style bubble." For the full story, seehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/09/us-britain-solar-cut-idUSTRE7582FP20110609 and http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-09/u-k-cuts-subsidized-rates-for-solar-power-by-as-much-as-71-.html.