The Great 'Get Paid To Generate Energy' Hunt

Jon_Tiffany

Darkseid wrote: »

Sorry to be dense, but I need a second cataract op and the first one's gone cloudy, so it's really, really hard to trawl through these boards right now. Basically: I live on a 4.5-acre smallholding in North Wales, disabled, low income etcetera, and I've tried signing up for the ISIS f.t.t. solar panels but it's obviously a lengthy process as I live above the Oxfordshire line they're operating to.

Given I've got a fair amount of land on the side of the Berwyn Mountains, are there similar f.i.t. schemes for wind turbines or even *-source heat pumps?

Much obliged for help with my hopework! Many thanks indeed.

Best bet for wind turbines is https://www.solarventus.co.uk although they are quite big and you will need a good national grid connection. Not aware of any schemes for heat pumps yet, but I'm sure they will appear soon.

Have you tried homesun for the solar panels? I'm not sure what area they are covering though. Also British Gas offer solar panels, but to be honest I would rather go with one of the smaller UK companies than a forgien company (can't remember who owns British Gas?)

John_Pierpoint

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

British Gas offer solar panels, but to be honest I would rather go with one of the smaller UK companies than a forgien company (can't remember who owns British Gas?)

These company names are a shambles.

Before the days of "Cedric the pig" the former British Gas was the state monopoly "gas boards". A better historian than I can tell you when the state nationalised the Victorian lighting & cooking industry.

British Gas Plc was broken up and the "gas board" bit became Centrica Plc. Centrica retained the trade name British Gas.

The world wide expertise ended up in BG Group Plc:

Here is a comment from the FT, in case you don't want to register to read it:
Total shareholder returns – share price appreciation plus dividend payments – over the period have also varied. Despite paying out billions of dollars in dividends, BP delivered a negative return due to its poor share price performance.

Chevron fared better but its share price performance has been unspectacular.
“The returns for shareholders have come disproportionately from dividends and share buy-backs rather than from capital growth,” said one industry watcher. “They have become almost like giant utilities.”
That analysis is particularly apt if you compare the supermajors with oil companies such as BG that are not integrated – with no “downstream” or refining and marketing operations – and which have delivered strong capital growth, albeit from a smaller base. The supermajors fare even worse when compared with smaller, more nimble-footed competitors such as Cairn Energy.


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bc6e29a4-b13d-11df-b899-00144feabdc0.html

As you can see they tend to tread on each other's toes and mergers and joint ventures are frequent. Centrica is junior partner with EDF in a "let's build a new generation of atomic power stations" venture:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-25/edf-rwe-may-spend-9-3-billion-per-new-nuclear-plant-in-u-k-hendry-says.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/08/21/giant-north-sea-oil-rig-could-save-us-from-huge-fuel-bills-115875-22502792/

Meanwhile the pipeline business has joined forces with the electricity pylons.

http://www.nationalgrid.com/corporate/About+Us/

All three these companies are probably still majority UK owned, if that has any meaning for a multinational business in a global economy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_power_transmission

Solargain

Slightly worrying article about the Government's attitude to FIT payments in the Guardian on 2 September.

I'm not able to post links as a new member but perhaps someone will do it for me?

Cardew

Solargain wrote: »

Slightly worrying article about the Government's attitude to FIT payments in the Guardian on 2 September.

I'm not able to post links as a new member but perhaps someone will do it for me?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/chris-huhne-green-electricity

Great news if it is reviewed.

Absolutely stupid that we - the consumer - all pay those who have a suitable roof; when the vast majority cannot have panels fitted even if we wanted them.(wrong size, wrong orientation, shaded, rented property etc)

Even more stupid is to allow firms like ASG etc to cash in on the scheme meant for private households.

Doc_N

Cardew wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/02/chris-huhne-green-electricity

Absolutely stupid that we - the consumer - all pay those who have a suitable roof; when the vast majority cannot have panels fitted even if we wanted them.(wrong size, wrong orientation, shaded, rented property etc)

It's for the greater good, though. By the same logic, nobody without children would be expected to contribute, through their taxes, towards the cost of education.

jackieblack

Does anyone have any experience of having a solar (PV) system installed by/through E-on, please?
How was it?
Were you satisfied with the service?
Did everything work out as expected?

Have had a couple of quotes, but am erring towards E-on at the moment.......

mysterons

Do Eon do their own installs? I was under the impression that Mark Group were doing the work for not only Eon but Tesco, Sainsburys etc and you'll get the same standard of install so just go for the best quote.

zeupater

jackieblack wrote: »

Does anyone have any experience of having a solar (PV) system installed by/through E-on, please?
How was it?
Were you satisfied with the service?
Did everything work out as expected?

Have had a couple of quotes, but am erring towards E-on at the moment.......

Hi

I had a quote from e.on ....... 25% - 35% more expensive than some/most other national installers !!!! ..... do a little more investigation, and remember that installed prices will probably fall by something like 10% over the next six (short daylight/low generation) months, so push for that level of discount now (on the lower price scale, of course) .....

jackieblack

mysterons wrote: »

Do Eon do their own installs? I was under the impression that Mark Group were doing the work for not only Eon but Tesco, Sainsburys etc and you'll get the same standard of install so just go for the best quote.

Yes, I think you're right about that, Mark Group do the install but the panels E-on supply are 185W panels, and the ones used by Tesco are 175W(although I am still waiting for Tesco's quote so am almost on the point of giving up with them). So, unless I'm mis-understanding this, they will produce 5-6% more electricity (?).
After some discussion, I am awaiting a 'revised' quote from E-on, (they have agreed to match the price quoted on one of my other quotes), but I need to have the install done during October half-term week (which they have also agreed) so need to make a firm decision asap (next few days).

One advantage in E-on for me is the smart meter that they will install with the panels. We are below-average consumers of electricity, so having a smart meter should benefit us.

mysterons

Amounts of electricity produced are dependent on the size of the installed array, panel sizes are irrelevant unless the total adds up to more. Tesco are using 220w Sharp panels now but if you need an install to a specific timeframe then Tesco are probably not for you. Although Mark Group are doing installs for various sellers Tesco installations seem to be low priority with them, I suspect because of the low margin Tesco are giving them.
If you've already had a Mark Group survey done you could use that to get quotes from other suppliers, I believe zeupater went that route.