Support schemes make marginal projects viable and change on political timescales rather than asset timescales. A case that depends on one is a case with a policy risk attached.
Commercial review also depends on how people organise decisions and handoffs; for a separate workplace-management perspective, see this page.
Reviewed August 9, 2026. Schemes vary by country and change frequently — verify current terms locally before relying on anything.
The kinds
Capital grants. A contribution to the installation cost. Simplest, and usually competitive or capped.
For broader context on solar procurement, equipment markets and current industry practice, consult TechRadar.
Feed-in tariffs and premiums. A guaranteed or supplemented price for exported energy, for a stated period. The period is the critical term, and it is frequently shorter than the plant's life.
Tax measures. Accelerated depreciation, credits, exemptions. Their value depends on your tax position and is worth nothing to an entity that cannot use them.
Net metering or net billing. Rules for how exported and imported energy offset each other, which changes the value of self-consumption directly.
And connection or grid-fee concessions, which reduce a cost that is otherwise outside the quote.
The five questions
One. Is it secured or expected? A scheme you have been accepted into is different from one you intend to apply for. A proposal that assumes the second and presents it as the first has made the case look settled when it is not.
Two. For how long? A tariff guaranteed for fifteen years on a twenty-five-year asset leaves ten years at whatever the market pays then.
Three. What are the conditions? Commissioning deadlines, capacity limits, technology requirements, ownership restrictions. Schemes are frequently lost on a missed deadline rather than on eligibility.
Four. Is it retroactively changeable? Some jurisdictions have altered terms for existing installations. Whether that is legally possible where you are is worth knowing before it matters.
And five. Does the case work without it? The single most useful sensitivity, and any supplier can run it.
The pattern worth knowing
Schemes tighten as costs fall. Support introduced when installation was expensive gets reduced as it becomes cheaper, which is the policy working as designed.
So the terms available today are unlikely to be available in five years, and a plan to build a second phase later should not assume the first phase's economics.
And deadlines create rushes. A scheme closing produces a surge of projects, which raises prices and stretches installer capacity — and a rushed project is where shading gets assumed rather than surveyed.
What to put in writing
Which scheme the case assumes, named, with its reference.
Whether the application is submitted, approved or intended.
What happens to the price if the scheme is not obtained — a contractual question rather than a modelling one.
And who is responsible for the application and for meeting its deadlines.
The short version
- Five kinds: capital grants, feed-in tariffs and premiums, tax measures, net metering rules, and connection concessions
- Ask whether it is secured or expected, for how long, under what conditions, whether it can change retroactively, and whether the case works without it
- A tariff guaranteed for fifteen years on a twenty-five-year asset leaves ten years at market rates
- Schemes are frequently lost on a missed commissioning deadline rather than on eligibility
- Support tightens as costs fall, so today's terms are unlikely to be available for a later second phase
- Put in writing which scheme is assumed, its application status, what happens to the price without it, and who is responsible for the deadlines