MSE News: 'Why the solar subsidy cuts are so damaging'

Geheim

The government is allowing those that can afford panels to steal from the poor or those not in a position to benefit from these payouts. Rental properties, flats, pensioners (unlikely to reap the benefits for long enough to recoup their investment). If the government needs to reach their EU quotas why dont they start by putting panels on all government buildings - at least they would be saving tax payers money.

rogerblack

mysterons wrote: »

'retail electricity at 7p per KW', :rotfl: where?

More or less any supplier with an economy 7, or a split 10 hour or similar tariff.

Though admittedly, your generation only occurring at night may raise some more questions.

supremetwo

The old FIT rate continues for all installs prior to March 2012.

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/fits_appeal_court_ruling.pdf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16721328

WestonDave

Government may have lost the case but have won the war - out of curiosity I phoned a local well regarded installer after the news broke (one we had lined up as a probable installer if we get to the point of doing it bearing in mind we have other higher priorities) - they declined to even quote of a new instal from cold for 3rd March deadline. So there will be a few extras that had their instals finish between December and March, but the gold rush was terminated in early December which is what the government always wanted. There will be one or two installers with surplus capacity that will throw a system up in 5 weeks but not many and certainly not the quantities that were going in during November when the order backlog suddenly became urgent!

grahamc2003

WestonDave wrote: »

Government may have lost the case but have won the war - out of curiosity I phoned a local well regarded installer after the news broke (one we had lined up as a probable installer if we get to the point of doing it bearing in mind we have other higher priorities) - they declined to even quote of a new instal from cold for 3rd March deadline. So there will be a few extras that had their instals finish between December and March, but the gold rush was terminated in early December which is what the government always wanted. There will be one or two installers with surplus capacity that will throw a system up in 5 weeks but not many and certainly not the quantities that were going in during November when the order backlog suddenly became urgent!

I agree, and I think the government have put an end to the gold rush. The uncertainty generated by an appeal to the supreme court will mean people installing today will still be taking a gamble on the 21/43p rate - the difference in the return is obviously very large. The fit has already absorbed £200m from the rhi budget (which in general subsidises technologies far more efficient than solar), so there may be resistance to transfering more cash away from the rhi. Meaning, if ultimately people gte the 43p rate for installations up to March, the 21p rate from next April may be lowered to compensate.

HalloweenJack

i want to know why friends of the earth are supporting making the elderly , the sick and poor suffer further for there friends at homesun

Perry525

The original idea was to encourage people to generate their own electricity and save nationally by keeping and using a smaller national grid, reduce the need for expanding the existing power stations, reduce the amount of coal and gas burn and save on imports.

The result as one may have expected is that those with solar panels have increased the amount of power used and have not contributed any where near the amount of electricity that was anticipated.

What you may call a total waste of time.

janz70

Hi all, new to this discussion so forgive me if Im being dense but does everyone on this 43p tariff (before 12th dec) continue to get this for 25 years and those after only paid 21p for 25 years or will all payments no matter when it was fitted come down to 21p in march - I presume its the former.;)

I am thinking about getting solar panels as I am buying a house with a large south facing roof but I dont have any money left let alone 10's of thousands for an instal so wanted to go the free route
but the halving of the rate has frightened a lot of the installers off.

I presume when fitted I can use all of the electricity generated myself - If so how do they make any money ?

Cardew

janz70 wrote: »

Hi all, new to this discussion so forgive me if Im being dense but does everyone on this 43p tariff (before 12th dec) continue to get this for 25 years and those after only paid 21p for 25 years or will all payments no matter when it was fitted come down to 21p in march - I presume its the former.;)

I am thinking about getting solar panels as I am buying a house with a large south facing roof but I dont have any money left let alone 10's of thousands for an instal so wanted to go the free route
but the halving of the rate has frightened a lot of the installers off.

I presume when fitted I can use all of the electricity generated myself - If so how do they make any money ?

Those installed and registered before 12 Dec will get 43.3p/kWh (and an additional 3.1p/kWh for exported electricity) for the remainder of their 25 years and those payments will be inflation linked each year and Tax free.

A full 4kWp system can be installed now for around £8,000 to £9,000

Rent a Roof companies won't get 21p/kWh but 16.8p/kWh(depending on appeal proceedings) and some are still installing, so obviously can make a profit at that price

jamesd

janz70, just wait a few years. Your roof will still be there when power companies are offering free installations as they do now for loft insulation, though for a while I expect that they will charge for the panels and other hardware. Panel prices continue to drop rapidly and may within a few years reach the point of being competitive with normal power sources without subsidy.