Stuart Wright Publish time 26-11-2019 04:00:59

The government kills the UK's retrofit solar panel sector

Amber Rudd, the energy secretary, is pushing ahead with fracking in the UK
Government makes ‘outrageous’ U-turn over fracking in precious wildlife sitesand is cutting the Feed-in-tariff for Solar panels to Zero as of January 1 2016.
Solar panels are expensive and are a long term investment which rely on the FIT to make economic sense despite large drops in costs over the last few years.
Death of 'green' handouts? How to grab a £15,150 return on solar panels
In effect, there will be lots fewer people installing solar panels and companies supplying them will be shutting shop.
Effectively the death of the UK solar PV industry.
Ideally a PV installation would be a wise investment without the government subsidy, but that's not the case at the moment.
Whether or not you agree with the government's policy, this is going to be bad news for a lot of people either thinking about getting domestic solar panels or working for companies selling and installing them.
Ultimately I think the decision will be bad for the environment.

John Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:00

Whilst not good. If its relying on Govt handouts to survive, then its not a viable business anyway.
Things may change if Elon Musks Powerwall thingymagig reaches maturity allowing home generated leccy to be used into the evening and night. But even then you are probably looking at a 10year payback

Trollslayer Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:01

Have to agree John.
It takes a lot of resourcesto make photovoltaic cells and I doubt those would be cancelled out out by the electricity generated.
At some point it will be viable in the UK but not yet.

Stuart Wright Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:01

The 7Kw Tesla Powerwall looks to be coming in at something like £2k   installation.

Trollslayer Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:01

That is just the battery, doesn't include the panels etc.

Stuart Wright Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:01

Right.I'm looking at a 12 panel, 4kw install on our roof for about £6k

Trollslayer Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:02

A 6-9 year return on the investment (at a guess)?

johntheexpat Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:02

UN scientist Jacquie McGlade raps UK over renewables - BBC News

Seems the UN agree.



"The UK government says it will meet its targets on carbon emissions in the most cost-effective way.

A spokesman said it was "absolutely committed to getting a global deal in Paris"."

I wonder if thats the same "absolute commitment" that they have to renegotiatinga deal with Europe?
ie a lot of blether.

PSM1 Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:02

I have my panels already and now just waiting for a cost effective home battery. In the US there are companies offering them on an installment approach. So they install them and you pay £30 a month which is close to what they save you on electricity. So a cost neutral option and then once paid off you start to save.

IronGiant Publish time 26-11-2019 04:01:02

We have so little feedback into the grid that wouldn't be cost effective for us.I guess I should turn a few computers off during the day data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
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