Free solar panel discussion

John_Pierpoint

Gizmosmum wrote: »

I understand the challenges of the RHI going ahead - I work with a lot of worried contractors at the minute who have a substantial part of their business on the assumption that RHI would go ahead.

At a recent meeting with some of the big guys in the industry Decc indicated that it is far from a done deal and certainly has the potential to be dumped. Not sure how that will help green Britian but there certainly seems to be a degree of unfairness if those who can least afford it are subsidising those who can afford it to go green.

Up to now several "poor" communities have been given free insulation and free heat pumps under the legislation covering "fuel poverty".
I cannot see that situation continuing unless the government can extract more money from the utility companies. If I was a buy to let landlord I would be worried that via the Energy Performance Certificate, I would be pushed into upgrading my property and spending 10's of thousands doing it.
Like everything given away I'm not sure it is appreciated by its recipients.
As usual it is the people in the middle who are going to be squeezed to pay for these green technologies.

Gizmosmum_2

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Up to now several "poor" communities have been given free insulation and free heat pumps under the legislation covering "fuel poverty".
I cannot see that situation continuing unless the government can extract more money from the utility companies. If I was a buy to let landlord I would be worried that via the Energy Performance Certificate, I would be pushed into upgrading my property and spending 10's of thousands doing it.
Like everything given away I'm not sure it is appreciated by its recipients.
As usual it is the people in the middle who are going to be squeezed to pay for these green technologies.

I gues it depends on where you satnd morally. I am a buy to let landlord among other things and while my properties will hopefully provide me with a pension in a few years time I do feel a responsibility to provide decent housing for my tenants.

It's much harder for kids to buy now, my son is unlikely to be able to buy until he's in his thirties. The least I can do is provide decent housing for someone while I make some cash on the way. Of course there are always landlords who purely see the commercial side of things.

And yes, I am looking at my buy to lets to see ifI can get solar pv on them too.

saintstan

Perry525 wrote: »

=============
You must understand that the output from a solar panel is dependent on the angle of the panel and your location.
Name the nearest town.

I'm based in west central Scotland, near Glasgow.
I have a flat roof. I dnont know if that benefits me or not when it comes to angle of the panel. In effect I could have any angle from horizontal to vertical by building a subframe or buying a system designed for flat-roofs.

Back to the fag-packet maths:
If I take £30k from my mortgage to fund a capital program to include a PV system over 25 yrs, at an average of 4% pa interest, this would equate to a total of £60k to pay back.
If the system could return an average of £1,500 per year at current rates for FiT, then factoring-in average inflation of 2% pa, this would return around £48k over the 25yr period.

Am I miles out here with me sums, and if not does this make good financial sense ?

nannap_2

Can you get the solar panel free offer if you live in a council house? Will ISIS install them?

Perry525

saintstan wrote: »

I'm based in west central Scotland, near Glasgow.
=============================
Not a good place for solar.
The nearest I can get to you is Alloa.
For there you need an angle above horizontal of 38 degrees for maximum effect over the year.
Based on a true south inclination less -1 degree you would get 791 watts on average over the year per day per square metre.
Any other deviation and that drops off.
System losses come in at 23.2%
Having a flat roof you can provide a perfect direction both vertical and horizontal.
If you were on the South Coast of England it would be so much better

VirgoScorpio

I want to buy some solar panels to install in my house in the Philippines. Can anybody tell me how I might buy them and for how much? Hopefully there would be installation instructions to go with them. :-)

YulBrynner_2

My earlier post predicted that FIT's could be scrapped at any time due to the German governments disastrous experience with solar panels. Today I read this... InsideHousing.co.uk/sustainability/feed-in-tariffs-should-be-scrapped/6510993.article
So the discussion has already started and don't think for one minute that the renewable heat incentive scheme will be exempt from scrutiny.

Jon_Tiffany

YulBrynner wrote: »

My earlier post predicted that FIT's could be scrapped at any time due to the German governments disastrous experience with solar panels. Today I read this... InsideHousing.co.uk/sustainability/feed-in-tariffs-should-be-scrapped/6510993.article
So the discussion has already started and don't think for one minute that the renewable heat incentive scheme will be exempt from scrutiny.

The German Feed In Tariff was a massive success, thats why 17 EU countries have introduced a FIT scheme.

Just becuase some nobody has written an article saying they think a carbon tax would have been better than FITs doesn't mean they are going to be scrapped.

Some people are contributing sensible points of view to this debate - others are just posting complete trash....

albyota

From Micropower:-

‘Greenest Government Ever?
“Needs to try much, much harder” as jobs are lost, and entrepreneurs
and investors spooked in the microgeneration industry

The Microgeneration industry today called upon David Cameron to intervene personally to fulfil his pledge to make this “the Greenest Government Ever” as squabbling between Government departments starts to cost jobs and cause investors to flee the UK Microgener In an “end of term” report (attached) the Micropower Council highlights how the Treasury is blocking the wishes of Energy and Climate Change Ministers Chris Huhne and Greg Barker to introduce a key policy that will encourage millions of hous or hot water. The report also highlights how the civil service machine has caused Ministers at the
Department for Communities and Local Government to break the law, as well as ignoring the publicly expressed wishes of two Ministers.

Dave Sowden, Chief Executive of the Micropower Council

Chris Huhne and Greg Barker at the Department for Energy and Climate Change to make progress on microgeneration policy are constantly being thwarted by t
machine taking over from Ministers in policy making at DEFRA and CLG. This is distorting the market, costing jobs, spooking entrepreneurs, and causing investors to flee. “Almost 130 Members of Parliament have called on the Government of the Renewable Heat Incentive for Microgeneration. Ministers in DECC have been inundated with briefings (including at least one established company implementing 40% cuts in its salary bill) and urgent requests for clarity on Despite this, the Treasury’s iron shutters remain down.
“In DEFRA and CLG, the civil service machine has for years undermined Ministers and thwarted their wishes on Permitted Development for micr
Government would be different and that the new batch of CLG Ministers would get a grip.
Despite this, Eric Pickles and Greg Clark have allowed their civil servants to over ride the wishes of two Ministers of State and sleep
“We now call on the Prime Minister himself to intervene personally to put a stop to this interdepartmental bickering, and give Chris Huhne and Greg Barker the help they need in tackling Treasury and CLG. The Conservative P
when in opposition, and if they are not seen through without any further delay, “the Greenest Government Ever” will have ended its first Parliamentary term with a microgeneration industry in crisis”.

read on....http://www.micropower.co.uk/
http://jdsassociates.com/download/home/greenestgovpress/pdf

digitaltoast

Jon_Tiffany wrote: »

The German Feed In Tariff was a massive success

George_Monbiot wrote:

The real net cost of the solar PV installed in Germany between 2000 and 2008 was €35bn. The paper estimates a further real cost of €18bn in 2009 and 2010: a total of €53bn in ten years. These investments make wonderful sense for the lucky householders who could afford to install the panels, as lucrative returns are guaranteed by taxing the rest of Germany's electricity users. But what has this astonishing spending achieved? By 2008 solar PV was producing a grand total of 0.6% of Germany's electricity. 0.6% for €35bn. Hands up all those who think this is a good investment.

Just sayin....