graphic showing example savings that could be made by installing solar power

The savings you could make

It has long been recognised that photo-voltaic technology, otherwise known as solar pv, is one of the most effective ways of producing emissions-free electricity.

In the recent Carbon Reduction Commitment, the government has made pv the most favoured green technology for homes and businesses through payments via the Feed-in Tariffs (FITs).

These tariffs, paid via the Clean Energy Cashback Scheme, came into force in April 2010 and have revolutionised the way in which people get paid for generating their own energy. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has announced that owners of micro-generators up to 4kWp, will be paid 21p per kWh on every unit of electricity that their system generates. This figure is index linked, tax free and the scheme runs for twenty five years.

Until now, homeowners or businesses have only been able to sell back the excess electricity produced, but since the introduction of FITs they are paid for all the electricity they generate, not just what they export to the grid.

We thought it important to show figures for a real installation so the figures shown on the right are for a residential property in Glossop. In fact this property faces South East rather than due South but still produces a significant amount of energy and gives the home owner a very good rate of return on their investment. 

  • 3.99kWp (kiloWatt peak) system
  • Feed in tariff pays 21p per unit (kWh) generated plus a minimum of 3p per unit of surplus electricity sold back to grid
  • Typical electricity prices are around 13p/unit
  • Based on the Energy Savings Trust assumption that a house uses 25% of the electricity generated.

graphic showing how energy generated is delivered to the national grid

The £647 from the Feed in Tariff would be paid direct to you by your energy supplier, probably split across two payments a year, and this income is tax free, index linked to inflation and protected for 25 years.

With Solar Peak’s competitive pricing and with this level of income  and savings, you could achieve a return on investment of around 8% in the first year alone.  Given that the feed in tariff rate is index linked and energy costs are likely to rise year on year, it is easy to see how the current year figure of 8% will increase throughout the twenty five year term.