Cardiff-based solar panel installation firm PV Solar Solutions has entered administration and ceased trading.

At the height of the market back in 2011 PV Solar Solutions posted a turnover of £7 million, but this had plummeted to around just £1 million by the time the administrator Mazars was called in at the end of April, according to Mazars director Keith Morgan.

PV Solar Solutions’ headcount had also shrunk to just five employees by the time firm entered administration and ceased trading on 9 May.

“We have ringfenced the company’s assets and are now looking at suppliers’ claims,” said Morgan, who is leading the Mazars team dealing with PV Solar Solutions’ administration.

“All employees have been let go.”

The installer is thought to owe around £500,000 to creditors, and has just £40,000-worth of assets.

Morgan confirmed PV Solar Solutions’ demise was due to the contraction of the residential installation market after the Government first cut the feed-in tariff (FiT) rate by more than half from 43.3p/kWh to 21p/kWh last year and followed this with subsequent periodic regressions that have left the current FiT at just 15.44p/kWh.

He added that any solar installations now entering administration could be described as “the tail end”.

“The ones going through administration now are the ones that hung on in the hope that the market might change and things would improve,” said Morgan.

“However, in many cases their external auditors have now said it is no longer worth the battle. We are now seeing the tail end of installers who are deciding it is no longer worth the battle.”