Breaze Energy Solutions managing director Simon Reid said the demand for solar panels was still high, but people were waiting for some certainty. 

“There is a mounting tension where people are waiting to see what’s going to happen, and then there might be a stampede (if 

the RET gets cut),” he said. 

As well as the large-scale projects at risk, the RET also provides incentive for residential and business solar installations that would be lost if it is scrapped or shrunk, as suggested by Dick Warburton’s review panel in August. 

Mr Reid said if the demand was hit by the RET’s cancellation, his employees and subcontractors would suffer as Breaze provided a “significant part” of some of their livelihoods. 

“There’d be less work. Breaze has about five consultants and gives work to two electrical contractors,” he said. 

National solar installer Energy Matters’ chief executive officer, Jeremy Rich, whose company does jobs in Ballarat, said his workforce would be hurt by the removal of the small-scale renewable energy subsidy (SRES). 

“(We have) 70 full-time staff, and we could see that workforce halved. These would be office people, a few project managers. We also have about 100 subcontractors who would lose out,” he said. 

Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the “boom and bust” caused by a fluctuating market was bad news for installers. 

“It increases the price of the panels by an estimated one-third. It could be a one-third reduction in sales, and then, what do solar businesses do? Some of them will actually lay off staff, some of them will put off hiring staff. That’s already happening now, because of the uncertainty,” he said. “Installers, like Simon, who are in it for the long haul, they hate the boom and bust cycle.” 

The Abbott government does have the numbers in the Senate to cut the RET, but Mr Barber said it was important to keep the pressure up on Labor and the Palmer United Party to continue their opposition to any changes.

alex.hamer@fairfaxmedia.com.au