2 months until the sun sets on solar panel grants
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THE sun is setting on the solar power revolution, which has transformed thousands of roofs up and down the country into money saving machines. The Mail on Sunday explains why you must act fast if you want to join the solar party before the lights go out for good.
THE MATHS EXPLAINED
HOMEOWNERS have until the end of the year to install solar panels to take advantage of a Government grant that can help them knock £620 a year off their energy bills.
Failure to have panels installed by 2016 means an environmentally friendly innovation that pays for itself in a decade and then rewards purchasers with a handsome stream of profit will be lost.
The deadline for installation is a result of the Government cutting the ‘feed-in tariff’ paid to those that generate power from solar panels.
Anyone installing panels before the end of the year will be eligible for the current payment of 12.47p for every kilowatt hour of solar energy used in the home. They will enjoy this payment for 20 years.
But those installing next year will only get 1.63p per kWh. For an average home, it means the solar energy payment will fall from £420 a year to just £55.
Users of solar panel energy will continue to save on average £120 a year by using energy generated by the sun’s rays.
They will also receive an extra £80 a year on average in the form of an ‘export tariff’. This is electricity they generate from the solar panels that goes back to the National Grid.
THE COST OF INSTALLING PANELS
THE typical cost of fitting solar panels is about £6,000 for the panels and £500 to have them installed and connected to your electricity supply – a job that can be done in a day.
The price has plummeted by more than 50 per cent over the past six years due to improvements in manufacturing technology.
The solar photovoltaic panels typically fit on a seven by four-metre space on the roof. They work best on sloping south-facing roofs, which catch most of the sun’s rays.
Unfortunately, it is usually not economical to install panels on roofs facing other directions. Planning permission is not usually required to install the panels.
Under the current tariff system, homeowners can expect to pay off the installation costs within a decade. Then, over the following ten years, they can expect to make an overall profit of £6,000 from a combination of feed-in tariff payments, export tariff payments and lower bills than they would have if using electricity 100 per cent supplied via the National Grid.
Once the tariff payments are cut at the end of the year, it could take new buyers of panels at least 25 years just to pay off the cost of going solar.
The independent Energy Saving Trust is calling on anyone considering panels to act immediately and get them installed before the end of the year. Brian Horne, home energy expert for the Energy Saving Trust, says: ‘The rules mean you must have the panels physically installed by the year end.’
Potential customers should not confuse photovoltaic solar panels – which catch the sun’s rays as energy and convert them into electricity – with cheaper solar thermal tubes, which are used to heat water. These water heating solar tubes have never been eligible for any tariff payments.
FIND A QUALIFIED INSTALLER
HOMEOWNERS keen to jump on the solar panel bandwagon before it comes to a shuddering halt will need to have a home with a south-facing roof, a property unencumbered by planning restrictions, and possess an energy performance certificate that provides information on how much energy the household uses.
Sally Francis, of consumer website MoneySavingExpert, explains: ‘An installer will visit a property before they put up the panels to find out if there is a south-facing roof that is suitable – this is where the sun beats down the most and solar panels make best financial sense.
‘They will also need to see an energy performance certificate. Only a score of D or above will qualify a home for the full feed-in tariff of 12.47p per kWh of solar energy used.
‘Score below a D and the feed-in tariff drops to 5.94p.’
To find a qualified installer, a homeowner should visit the microgeneration certification scheme website. This lists has details of more than 2,500 specialists who are guaranteed to install panels according to minimum standards set by the scheme.
INDUSTRY IN CRISIS
THE solar panel industry is facing annihilation as a result of the Government’s decision to slash the feed-in tariff payments.
Already this month, four providers have been forced out of business – Leicester-based Mark Group, Climate Energy (Witham, Essex), Southern Solar (Harrow, Middlesex) and Zep Solar UK (Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire).
This may be the tip of the iceberg for an industry that supports 34,000 jobs. About 27,000 of these are now at risk according to the Solar Trade Association. There are 750,000 homes with solar panels but take-up has been rising, with more than 100,000 properties being fitted in the past couple of years alone. But demand is expected to plummet in the New Year.
Leonie Greene, spokeswoman for the Solar Trade Association, says: ‘What is being done to our industry is obscene.’
She believes the Government is being short-sighted and says solar energy will become more important in the future as fossil fuels such as oil and coal become scarcer.
LAST-CHANCE SALOON
A DEPARTMENT of Energy & Climate Change consultation on plans to drop payments for solar panels ended on Friday. The industry now has a nail-biting wait to see if the Government takes any notice of pleas not to take an axe to feed-in tariff rates.
The industry has proposed an extra £1 payment to the existing £9 a year that is applied to all household bills and goes towards subsidising the ‘clean technology’ industry. This charge, says the solar industry, would allow the feed-in tariff to stay untouched.