Feed In Tariffs(FIT) Announced.

[Deleted User]

Cardew wrote: »

Nice post - as per usual!

As indicated in the post above, the prices I have seen posted on the internet and from a couple of enquiries, are somewhat higher than the £4,500 per kW installed; with perhaps £6,000 per kW being typical.

I have little doubt that your figure is more realistic for someone 'in the trade'. However Joe Public is at the mercy of accredited installers and they have licence to make a killing!!!

Cardew, thank you for your thanks.

People do need to shop around for PV. However when I talk about a cost of £4,500 per kW installed this is perfectly reasonable and achievable by the average Jo/Joe in the street now.

The below is a quote from a company that I currently do some business with. It is a full retail price.........

It is for a ground moutned system, BUT the only difference in cost, will be the scaffold hire for the install time. Ok this is a slightly larger system than 2kW peak but, this is for top quality branded and known panels and without any negotiation on price. A 2kW system might be closer to £5,000 per kW (but that is inclusive of VAT and fitting, access etc etc.

System size 22 Panels @ 3.96kWp = £17,500.00 + VAT

If somebody is quoting more than this sort of price I would really suggest shopping around. FITs are going to drive up demand and drive down price.

The only real issue is that there is already a shortage on inverters in the market and it may take time for enough stock to be available to satisfy demand.

Before anybody asks, I am not going to say who the above supplier is. I'm not pushing a product or any particular company. I like to keep my opinions and posts free from accusation of bias and just state the facts.

GoonerT

Graham1 wrote: »

I don't know, but at that price and that size you are looking at a 30 year + pay back period if you consider just the FIT price (about £180 per year).

so having looked around I dont think there is a minimum qualifying generation. Looking at the estimates for how much money they will bring in, I think a 3 panel system (around 600W) should pay £250 a year (FIT+bill saving), thus for 8% return I should not pay more than say £3200 and a four panel system should cost around £4000. I'd like to set myself a max I'm willing to pay before talking to these companies. Do these estimates sound reasonable?

edit: wrote before I saw freddix's post, thanks for the info

Graham1

I'm not an expert but I would suggest a figure of 800 Kwh per year per 1Kwpeak is a reasonable assumption to make for most of centre/south UK. This allows for losses in the inverter (maybe 5%) and any less than optimum siting (e.g. SW or SE instead of S, maybe another 5% approx) or angle or inclination.

http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/cmaps/eu_opt/pvgis_solar_optimum_GB.png

Maybe somebody with a system that has been working for a year can say if this is a reasonable figure.

Output may also drop over time, e.g. 90% output after 10 years, so perhaps even 800 is a bit optimistic.

GoonerT

so I just had a meeting with a rep for a solar company. Upshot is
1. They quoted £13k for 1Kw (6x180w panels), or £11k if I helped them market it for them. They have a pyramid scheme refund offer too which you can opt out of to save £1k, stil best price of £10k,
2. You need at least 1Kw to qualify for FIT
3. They do not have to be fitted by MCS fitters (this is just what the rep said, he could be wrong. They use them anyway)

when I questioned him about the high price he claimed they used top notch components in an aluminum frame, that they were guaranteed for 10 years under some rock solid scheme and that 1Kw systems were relatively more expensive because of fixed costs.

Seems massively more expensive than all the quotes mentioned on here. All in all not worth it, especially as there probably isnt room on my roof anyway!

Edit: Tracked this lot down, complete cowboys. Lol, never really had the "pushing tin" sales routine before, he wanted us to pay 35% up front then and there!

http://www.ciao.co.uk/Smart_Energy_Solar_Water_Heating_System__Review_5857827
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2009/06/smart-energy-vows-to-clean-up.html

decsdad

Been quoted £11k for a 2.5KW system(before 30% grant, so £7.7K), now just got to convince my wife that they will be easy on the eye.

Graham1

decsdad wrote: »

Been quoted £11k for a 2.5KW system(before 30% grant, so £7.7K

Grants were withdrawn for new applicants on 3'rd Feb so did you get an application in before then ?

Cardew

Graham1 wrote: »

Grants were withdrawn for new applicants on 3'rd Feb so did you get an application in before then ?

Could Decsdad be in Scotland?

decsdad

You guessed it, Sunny(hopefully) Scotland.

Graham1

OK, I didn't know that, so it looks like those who are best able to take advantage of the new FIT rates are people living in Cornwall and parts of Devon (highest average solar irradiation in the U.K. *) and Scotland (grants). I suspect that for many others it's marginal because of the relatively long pay-back period.

* Pembrokeshire, Norfolk and a few other areas also look pretty good on that map I posted earlier.

Mcfi5dhc

The Conservative Party has confirmed that, if elected, it will reverse the current Government’s decision to treat early adopters of on-site microgeneration schemes less favourably than those installing renewable energy technologies for the first time.

Read the full story here:

http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/tories-promise-early-adopters-of-microgeneration-better-deal-under-feedintariffs-1161.aspx