Should I cancel my Solar PV order ?

Pincher

Cancel it.

If you were doing it for a bit of extra income, it's not worth the hassle at 21p.

If you were doing it for the environment, you will get sales discounts next year. Even Germany is scaling back, so there will be over production in China. Solar install companies will be going out of business, but they may have already ordered lots of PV panels, which will arrive for Christmas. The cowboys will simply disappear and not pay their subcontractors, but there should be enough work for the honest ones, who just have to reduce stock and staff to carry on. If you get 30% off install cost, breakeven will be sooner at for 21p.

MillicentBystander

Yes, the price of solar PV panels will inevitably plummet in 2012. This has been a wholly unsustainable business and i'm glad in a way that the Govt. have 'seen sense'.

stoem

Yes I probably will have to cancel, but that doesn't mean I am happy with how this scheme is being run.

You mention Germany. I am German and was glad to see the FiT introduced here in the UK. Don't forget that the Germans have had it for the best part of 10 years so no wonder they are scaling it back (have you visited Germany recently? You can spot panels on every street - isn't that what was wanted for the UK too?) and it's a shambles what the UK government is making of the scheme.

HalloweenJack

germany scaled back there FiT scheme years and years ago when they too saw the folly of the massive subsidies - solar subsidies were DOUBLE those of all other renewables - so its needs to be reduced.

dogshome

If you decide to cancel, DO IT QUICKLY
The chances are that you went into this contract on the basis of Pay-back forecasts that were given you in writing - If they don't exist, neither does your contact.

DO IT QUICKLY ? Even with the old, very generous FIT payments the entire Solar Panel Industry was already runnng into trouble, largely because of too many suppliers in a cash restricted market
With the reduced FIT's the problem just gets worse and there will be financial casualties, and not just the cowboys - If you don't want Panels on the new deal, the name of the game is to pursue hard for your deposit back, just in case.

For anyone who's still happy to order solar panels despite the reduced FIT's, it would not be wise to pay anything more than a Two and a Half % deposit, (£300 on a £12,000 Order), unless that is the customer deposits are held in an Insurance Co or Bank backed, ring fenced Customer Deposit account

stoem

My contract is with Tesco Renewables and can be cancelled even without the proposed change in FiTs as long as this happens before any installation work commences. So that part does not concern me.

What does concern me is the way in which the changes to the scheme are being handled.

On a brighter note, Tesco seem to have recognised the severity of the situation and have stopped all new applications to free up resources to process orders already placed. I've just had a call from the installer which will put up the scaffolding next week for an installation on November 14th leaving plenty of time to get the MCS formalities out of the way.

I'll keep you posted...