Solar energy and the Feed-In Tariff - your opinions

Created a new industry with tax paying businesses.

Indeed, and at a fraction of the cost of many other industry subsidies funded by the taxpayer and this one can actually be accessed directly by the consumer rather than profiting only the supplier.
 
Created a new industry with tax paying businesses.
Maybe so, but if you assume individuals who have signed up to this make their 2.5K per year over the next 20yrs? Then that's £50,000+ they're 'giving' away to each individual?

Assuming there's 100,000 such people in the UK? That's five billion pounds? And for what will contribute to a fraction of one percent of the countries electricy needs?! And let's not even talk about all the administration costs etc involved with scheme.


And the other side of the matter is, the people who can of course take advantage of this scheme, are the people with already some form of disposable income?!


And on the matter of the tariff people will get if they install now, it does seem to be up in the air, and not the higher rate, as this article suggests:-

Trouble is, the high court "victory" does not guarantee that someone signing up now (and spending upwards of £10,000) will ever see 43.3p a unit for the electricity they generate. Chris Huhne, energy minister at the time, said the government will appeal to the supreme court. All we know is that someone rushing through an installation now may pick up 43.3p a unit. Or they may not. The only guarantee is that you'll pick up 21p a unit between 3 and 31 March. After that nothing is certain.
 
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Maybe so, but if you assume individuals who have signed up to this make their 2.5K per year over the next 20yrs? Then that's £50,000+ they're 'giving' away to each individual?

Assuming there's 100,000 such people in the UK? That's five billion pounds? And for what will contribute to a fraction of one percent of the countries electricy needs?! And let's not even talk about all the administration costs etc involved with scheme.

Urm, you've rather missed the point haven't you! This whole FiTs business is a stimulus, which is proving more successful than anyone imagined. Prices are coming down so fast, that PV is likely to reach grid parity in just a few years. With interest free finance, it's already there in the UK.

Once you're at grid parity, it'll be a no brainer to install PV all over the pace, without need for subsidies, and within a decade PV could be providing 10% of UK electricity. After many decades of PV being hopelessly uneconomic it's almost there. In many ways it's better than wind turbines as it generates just metres away for consumption so doesn't have to worry about transmission overheads, embedded generation increases awareness and lowers demand... and there's minimal operational costs (management/maintenance).
 
Urm, you've rather missed the point haven't you! This whole FiTs business is a stimulus, which is proving more successful than anyone imagined. Prices are coming down so fast, that PV is likely to reach grid parity in just a few years. With interest free finance, it's already there in the UK.

Once you're at grid parity, it'll be a no brainer to install PV all over the pace, without need for subsidies, and within a decade PV could be providing 10% of UK electricity. After many decades of PV being hopelessly uneconomic it's almost there. In many ways it's better than wind turbines as it generates just metres away for consumption so doesn't have to worry about transmission overheads, embedded generation increases awareness and lowers demand... and there's minimal operational costs (management/maintenance).

I hope you're right. But billions of pounds in 'gifts' seems an odd way to kick start it. I'm sure the money could have been targetted to better effect.

And as for it supplying 10% of the UK requirements, there's three problems:-
1) Only during daylight hours. So other power sources are still required for most of the day.
2) Power delivery will fluctuate heavily winter to summer. So other power sources need to be ramped up over winter.
3) Completely reliant on will of God weather wise. Other power sources will need to be available within a matter of hours to fill the gap should the weather worsen.

It seems dangerous to structure a large lump of our energy supply on such a brittle supply. And seemingly so we can offset some carbon footprint that half the rest of the world doesn't give two hoots about.
 
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FiT is just a way of burgeoning the ranks of renewable subsidy farmers with renewable subsidy smallholders.

Solar is just robbing Peter to pay Paul, energy companies have to pay for the elctricity at this rate in proportion to the number of customers they have, so it goes straight on everyone elses bill.

Its an excellent investment for the individual its just crappy for everyone else, and bad politics to boot.

Also if PV ever reaches the point where it is generating at parity with traditional generation it means grid stability will become a serious issue.
 
Bit of an update for me..

I'm getting a 3.68kWh system put in any day, which is the maximum you're allowed without getting prior approval from the electric board (source)

That equates as 16 panels, and a total installation cost of £9500. Took a bit of a gamble that the FiT will remain at 43.3p after the appeal, but to be honest we'd be happy with 21p anyway, so anything else will be a bonus :)
 
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Bit of an update for me..

I'm getting a 3.68kWh system put in any day, which is the maximum you're allowed without getting prior approval from the electric board (source)

That equates as 16 panels, and a total installation cost of £9500. Took a bit of a gamble that the FiT will remain at 43.3p after the appeal, but to be honest we'd be happy with 21p anyway, so anything else will be a bonus :)

21p will equate to approx 10+yrs or so cover costs?
 
Bit of an update for me..

I'm getting a 3.68kWh system put in any day, which is the maximum you're allowed without getting prior approval from the electric board (source)

That equates as 16 panels, and a total installation cost of £9500. Took a bit of a gamble that the FiT will remain at 43.3p after the appeal, but to be honest we'd be happy with 21p anyway, so anything else will be a bonus :)

Nice one EVH :) is your scaffold up yet?
 
Nice one EVH :) is your scaffold up yet?

No, put the deposit down last night with a guaranteed completion before the March deadline, so pending another meeting today it should be a matter of days before they start work.

I'll post a few pictures here, but should have more information in the house build thread in the next few weeks :)
 
No, put the deposit down last night with a guaranteed completion before the March deadline, so pending another meeting today it should be a matter of days before they start work.

I'll post a few pictures here, but should have more information in the house build thread in the next few weeks :)

So you're not sure what rate you'll be getting then?

How much is your installation roughly if you don't mind me asking?
 
He said £9500 on a previous thread. Its a great investment on either tariff.

The FIT goes up with inflation. The solar array will pretty much generate the same amount of electricity over the term but electricity bills will go up. Its not just the FIT its also the savings on your electricity bill to take into account.
 
He said £9500 on a previous thread. Its a great investment on either tariff.

The FIT goes up with inflation. The solar array will pretty much generate the same amount of electricity over the term but electricity bills will go up. Its not just the FIT its also the savings on your electricity bill to take into account.

Not so sure it's a great investment on either tariff!?!?

If it's the higher one, then yes, but if it's the lower one you could question that:-
a) It'll take probably the best part of 10yrs+ (???) to get your investment back.
b) If you wait a few months the markups probably being charged by fitters and panel companies will be drastically reduced to the drop in demand. So a £10K fit might drop down to a lot less for example. eg: Fit in 4 months and save 2K (two years less till investment returned)!


If I could justify £10K at the moment, and could guarentee the higher rate, I'd be interested. But I can't justify £10K over a 10yr'ish investment unfortunately :(
 
The Government are not paying it.....EON are, out of their legally held commitments to renewable energy sources as per their licence to supply.

Well, more accurately the Government are not paying it, the energy companies customers are paying it.
 
Well, more accurately the Government are not paying it, the energy companies customers are paying it.

So everyone not on the scheme has to pay for those on the scheme :rolleyes:

And if we think even more candidly about it. The ones who are least able to afford to go on the scheme (with lower incomes), pay for those who are most able to pay to go on the scheme (who have disposable income).

Bonkers!
 
So everyone not on the scheme has to pay for those on the scheme :rolleyes:

And if we think even more candidly about it. The ones who are least able to afford to go on the scheme (with lower incomes), pay for those who are most able to pay to go on the scheme (who have disposable income).

Bonkers!

Pretty much.
 
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