Unrewarding small-scale solar installation

wrf12345

If you are going to mandate solar on new properties then that has to be balanced by getting rid of electric standing charges to give the owner the chance to break even on electric use and solar generation...

CSI_Yorkshire

Hmm.  Mandated solar on new properties therefore remove standing charge for all properties?  Or just the new ones?  What about ones that already have solar?  Does only solar count?  What about microwind?  Home biomass?

Or is this just an excuse to shoehorn your pet project in?

[Deleted User]

wrf12345 said:

If you are going to mandate solar on new properties then that has to be balanced by getting rid of electric standing charges to give the owner the chance to break even on electric use and solar generation...

It will not fly as an idea. As more renewables are installed then there needs to be improvements made to the local energy infrastructure to deal with the export load which is at a higher voltage. If improvements to the infrastructure are not made, then consumers will increasingly find that they are site export limited as more local renewables are deployed.

In the past 5 years, my Grid voltage has had to be adjusted downwards on two occasions. SPEN told me that they have now run out of transformer taps so any further downward adjustments would require a transformer change. These costs have to be paid for by someone.

Break Even. Most solar array owners will break even in about 6 to 8 years at today’s prices. I have a 6.5kWp array that saves me 3500kWh of imported energy @27.53p/kWh (OFGEM cap) = £963.55. I also get about £400 a year in export payments. Total savings/income = £1363.55. Cost of installation = £7500 which gives a break even point of just under 6 years.

matelodave

IMO the only reason for omitting standing charges is if you are disconnected from the grid and the meter taken away so you are self sufficient. If you need to either use energy (like when the sun doesn't shine or over night etc) or want to feed some back to get a contribution then you'll need to be connected


Standing charges are there to help pay for the provision and maintenance of infrastructure between you and the generating station, metering, billing and other stuff (like the green subsidy towards having a solar installation etc).

InvertedVee

[Deleted User] said:

Break Even. Most solar array owners will break even in about 6 to 8 years at today’s prices. I have a 6.5kWp array that saves me 3500kWh of imported energy @27.53p/kWh (OFGEM cap) = £963.55. I also get about £400 a year in export payments. Total savings/income = £1363.55. Cost of installation = £7500 which gives a break even point of just under 6 years.

Yes, I'm sure that's true for many much larger systems. But for a very small system the economics are different.

QrizB

InvertedVee said:

[Deleted User] said:

Break Even. Most solar array owners will break even in about 6 to 8 years at today’s prices. I have a 6.5kWp array that saves me 3500kWh of imported energy @27.53p/kWh (OFGEM cap) = £963.55. I also get about £400 a year in export payments. Total savings/income = £1363.55. Cost of installation = £7500 which gives a break even point of just under 6 years.

Yes, I'm sure that's true for many much larger systems. But for a very small system the economics are different.

But you're still looking to break even in a decade or so, well within the lifetime of the system.

I'm not entirely sure why you think you won't?

CSI_Yorkshire

InvertedVee said:

[Deleted User] said:

Break Even. Most solar array owners will break even in about 6 to 8 years at today’s prices. I have a 6.5kWp array that saves me 3500kWh of imported energy @27.53p/kWh (OFGEM cap) = £963.55. I also get about £400 a year in export payments. Total savings/income = £1363.55. Cost of installation = £7500 which gives a break even point of just under 6 years.

Yes, I'm sure that's true for many much larger systems. But for a very small system the economics are different.

Only for the portable gimmick systems, but I don't think anyone was talking about those.

For a normal system, however small, cost of installation and savings/income scale at broadly the same rate - not quite so good at the smaller end, but enough that you will still break even.

Robin9

InvertedVee said:

All of the new-build houses on our small development came with a small 1kW solar installation.

We moved in over a year ago and I've enough data to see that it's benefited us to the tune of a princely £135/year. That's £54 of earnings and £82 worth of reduced grid consumption.

The panels generated 900kWh over the year. We don't know how much we paid for them as that cost was hidden in the total purchase price. My hunch is that their lifespan might be shorter than the payback period. Still, we've avoided a small amount of carbon emissions I suppose.

It's a good lesson in the economics of small-scale solar PV, which aren't favourable in homes which have low energy needs like ours.

The sad thing is the roof could have probably accommodated a 4kW system that would have earned us another £400/year.

I receive 15p/kWh with the Octopus SEG, which is comparable with the rate for daytime import on Agile.

Is that your roof ?    I've just had 6 panels  and that's 2.4 kW (not 1 kW)

QrizB

Robin9 said:

Is that your roof ?    I've just had 6 panels  and that's 2.4 kW (not 1 kW)

OP has 3 x 335 watt panels.