SOLAR INSTALLATIONS UNDER THE FEED-IN-TARIFFS SCHEME
THE number of people signing up to a solar panel scheme which rewards them with cash payments is at a record low.
The Feed-in-Tariffs (FiT) scheme offers cash payments to people whose homes produce its own electricity by using solar panels.
There were 16,422 solar panel installations in 2017 according to figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
That’s a 51.4 per cent reduction from the 33,815 installations in the previous year.
When it first launched, the FiT paid 43.3p per kWh of electricity produced.
Records go back as far as 2013, when some 89,822 solar panels were installed.
The following year that rocketed to 118,594 installations.
It was highest in 2015 when 155,459 solar panels were installed in homes. But changes came into place in 2016 that limited the number of people who could claim for payments across each quarter of a year. When the limit was met, claimants would have to wait until the next quarter to receive their payment - which could have been a lower amount if the tariff was also lowered in that that period. Another reason why the number of domestic installations has fallen is likely because the rate of pay has recently been slashed to less than an eighth of its original price.
As it stands, the rate of pay is just 3.85p per kWh.
Payments are set by the government and UK’s energy regulator, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem).
Electricity companies with more than 250,000 customers have to pay the tariffs - including British Gas, Eon, and EDF Energy - while smaller companies can choose to opt in to the scheme.
A BEIS spokesperson said: “Since we launched our world-leading scheme in 2010, we’ve outstripped installation predictions by nearly 100,000 - with 820,000 solar installations as of 2018. That’s also helped us achieve our highest ever levels of solar power earlier this year. “Given that success it’s not surprising to see the numbers levelling out now, but the government continues to support low carbon technologies and will invest £2.5 billion on low carbon innovation by 2021.”