MSE News: Solar subsidies to be slashed under government plans

Equaliser123

HalloweenJack wrote: »

thats because your looking at it wrong - its an annuity , £10k invested in a £1500 per year return

I think that's what I said...

Brummie71

magyar wrote: »

Didn't realise that. Thanks.

The reason is that FITs were designed to encourage new installs, not reward those who had already invested and could thus have found a loophole.

Brummie71

One thing to note about choosing a FIT supplier that you can hand-deliver the application to is that they may not be forced to accept you.

All the MANDATORY licencees - the big players - have to accept their own customers, customers of non-FIT supplying companies and those off-grid.
They do not have to accept customers of other mandatory licencees, so if you are a BG customer, EON doesn't have to accept you. They might, but they aren't required to do so. I'd suggest checking before you choose a supplier different to your own.

Frankly, if you are running close to the deadline, a bike courier would be worth the money.

orrery

Brummie71 wrote: »

Frankly, if you are running close to the deadline, a bike courier would be worth the money.

... and check the form several times to make sure that it is OK. It would be sad to get it rejected!

stewgreen

Equaliser123 wrote: »

I have seen our electricity consumption fall by 35-40% over the 12 months since our installation.

I have also seen the credits to my bank account with the FITs. Our investment of £9.8k has in 9 months produced £1.3k.

There are no cleaning costs and they don't have to be inspected.

- OK seems you have been very lucky with the £1300 in 9 months off 3.29Kw and must have produced at least 3000Kwh which would have cost £133 to generate at Drax. (yes that's 1/10th)

but be careful of assumptions
- will they generate the same year after year ?
- are you sure they never need cleaning ? commercial ones do

Inspection - some people mentioned they had to pay for their roof to be inspected before installation

- barring government trickery your £1500/yr makes £37,500 over 25 years plus the 35-40% saving you say on your consumption
- if you stick 10K in the bank then it becomes £38,000 if the interest rate is 5.5% ... of course it could be higher could be lower

Equaliser123

stewgreen wrote: »

- OK seems you have been very lucky with the £1300 in 9 months off 3.29Kw and must have produced at least 3000Kwh which would have cost £133 to generate at Drax. (yes that's 1/10th)

but be careful of assumptions
- will they generate the same year after year ?
- are you sure they never need cleaning ? commercial ones do

Inspection - some people mentioned they had to pay for their roof to be inspected before installation

- barring government trickery your £1500/yr makes £37,500 over 25 years plus the 35-40% saving you say on your consumption
- if you stick 10K in the bank then it becomes £38,000 if the interest rate is 5.5% ... of course it could be higher could be lower

They won't necessarily generate the same each year. However, the averages are looking good. Their degradation is measured in low single digit %age per annum.

Nope. Told that they never need cleaning. Rain does that. At a real pinch, it really wouldn't cost very much.

Didn't have to pay separately for an inspection pre-installation.

Your calculations are wrong.

FITs are index linked. Therefore, you cannot simply multiply £1,500 by 25.

Secondly, they are tax free. It is certainly not possible to get 5.5% tax free. I'm a higher rate taxpayer so even using your 5.5% (which I simply cannot get at the moment) the compounded interest is £12.5k.

So, using your figures - solar panels - looking like £38,000 + (not taking into account inflationary increases) in addition to savings on electricity costs. Assuming current figures (unlikely given recent history of energy increases), that would equate to £120 per year x 25 years = £3000.

So, conservatively, I make that £41,000 over the 25 year period less any inverter replacements, etc.

Savings - £22.5k (to include capital).

Arthurian

Apologies for what must surely be a dim question - the article is all about solar feed in tariffs and solar panels. Does it apply to wind turbines?

Cardew

Arthurian wrote: »

Apologies for what must surely be a dim question - the article is all about solar feed in tariffs and solar panels. Does it apply to wind turbines?

The other FITs - including wind turbines - are being reviewed and an announcement made later.

Solar overwhelmingly was the major user of the very generous subsidies.

magyar

Arthurian wrote: »

Apologies for what must surely be a dim question - the article is all about solar feed in tariffs and solar panels. Does it apply to wind turbines?

Other tariffs have not yet been reviewed. Since wind FIT has had relatively low take-up, my guess is it's not going to change. Hydro FIT also expected to be the same.

annie_tanks

I applied through Eon , because it looked the best offer as on this website, for a solar panel system a few weeks ago and got a call yesterday to say all new applications are being cancelled because of the potential rise in tariffs that is under review..Eon man was very good ..fraid I did bang on about how this is a backward step to going greener.. and with hindsight wished I had applied ages ago..