Solar Panels Blog

How you could save TWICE…

If you’re contemplating the switch to renewable energy, solar panel grants won’t just help make it affordable – they can make it profitable.

For such are the environmental benefits of solar panels, UK Government has put measures in place that see homeowners effectively paid to use them – and that’s on top of the savings you’ll make on your energy bills.

These solar panel grants, introduced in April 2010, are known as feed-in tariffs – and in this blog post we’ll look at how they work and how you can benefit.

Feed-in tariffs for Solar Panels

Feed-in tariffs compel the major UK energy suppliers to pay householders for electricity created at home. Naturally, that includes the electricity you generate through solar panels – and also extends to other renewable technology like wind turbines.

By generating your own electricity through solar power, you don’t have to import from the national grid, so you’ll get paid by your energy supplier for each and every unit of energy you save.

Better still, thanks to these solar panel grants, you’ll get extra income for any electricity you generate but don’t use. In effect, you’re selling this energy back to the grid to be used elsewhere – meaning you get paid twice!

These two forms of income are known as a generation tariff and an export tariff respectively.

Are you eligible for a solar panel grant/feed-in tariff?

If you’re yet to install your solar panels, or they were installed after the 1^st April 2010 (by an MCS-certified installer), then you will be eligible to pick up the full tariff payments.

Your installer will provide an eligibility certificate, which you’ll need to show to your energy supplier in order to start claiming.

If your installation was completed prior to that date, and you previously collected ROC payments, then you’ll need to have switched to the feed-in tariff by the end of March 2010. If you didn’t, then unfortunately you won’t qualify.

How much could you save?

Your savings (or earnings as you may prefer to think of it) will depend on the size, type and efficiency of your solar panel installation. It will also depend on when your panels were installed, with more recent installations earning at a different rate to older ones.

As a rough guide though, the Energy Saving Trust estimates that a typical domestic installation (2.2kwp) should earn the homeowner up to £800 per year. That’s in addition to the £120 you’d save on your electricity bill.

As a general rule, the more electricity you create, the more money you make – but be aware that installations over 5 Mega Watts are excluded under the terms of the scheme.

Check out the cashback calculator on the EST website for a more accurate idea of what you could save.

Are there any other solar panel grants available?

Not quite yet; but there will be very soon…

The RHI (Renewable Heating Incentive) is expected to come into force in the summer of 2011, and will effectively replicate the methodology of feed-in tariffs – but homeowners will be paid for generating heat energy, rather than electricity.

As soon as more details are released, we’ll put the spotlight on the RHI and see what’s in it for you.