Feed in Tariffs

Sillytoe

I’m selling house with solar panels. Invested £13000 in panels in 2011 and have received £25k back so far. Were lucky we got in on high tariff of 43.3 pkwh at the time. Now itis 68.3.
There are 12 years to go on the contract and I reckon a conservative £30000 to come to new owners with zero investment on their part. Would love to keep that expected income but can’t see how we can. Any ideas how we can get some return from the panels? Or do we just have to accept the panels go with the territory?

Krakkkers

Negotiate with the buyers to keep the FIT payments yourself, FIT payments do not automatically go to the buyer of the house, they have to be transferred.
That said the new owners of the house are not going to realistically go along with that as it would mean you retain an interest in the house you just sold and they would have to give you access to the generation meter so it would become a rent a roof situation.
You could just accept that it makes the house more attractive to buyers.

24febstarter

There are 2 separate benefits to living in a home with solar panels. Not only are you paid for all the energy that is generated whether or not it's exported to neighbouring homes or use it yourself. But your energy bills are likely to be lower as you can effectively run most appliances free of charge while the sun is shining.

Hopefully it should be possible to price these out, knowing how much your bills have reduced as well as the FIT payments coming in. The generation income may only be for a limited time but there's still a long way to go.

Against that, there may be unknowable costs too, like the need to replace an inverter or the whole array if it gets damaged fo whatever reason, like by a power surge. If the original inverter is still in use it's worth checking the warranty. Panels may be guaranteed for 25 years but this is likely to need replacing at some stage.

inspectorperez

Think I would want to charge a premium on the asking price of the house.

I guess a mathematical expert might calculate the equivalent of £30,000 in terms of a discounted cash flow, to arrive at a figure of say £20K. But as has already been pointed out, there is the risk of inverter problems/pigeons/panel cleaning and maintenance so you might end up with a lesser figure of say £15K.

If buyer won't play ball, then retain the benefit of the contract and be prepared to deal with any arising issues. Think the new owner might eventually get sick of access being required by workmen to deal with whatever the issues are.

Keep_pedalling

Your buyers would be mad to let you kip the FIT payments as it would make it difficult for them to sell at a later date. You have already had a decent return on them and presumable the FIT payments are built in the sale price. Our estate agent certainly factored our FIT payments into his valuation. (Also installed in 2011)

Tomasu

Sillytoe said:

I’m selling house with solar panels. Invested £13000 in panels in 2011 and have received £25k back so far. Were lucky we got in on high tariff of 43.3 pkwh at the time. Now itis 68.3.
There are 12 years to go on the contract and I reckon a conservative £30000 to come to new owners with zero investment on their part. Would love to keep that expected income but can’t see how we can. Any ideas how we can get some return from the panels? Or do we just have to accept the panels go with the territory?

I have got my FIT in 2015 for 11.0p per KW/h how the heck you got an 36% rise?! when and how I can get it to rise mine?! thank you

Tomasu

Hi Guys,

I have my FIT from Scottish power as this is when I installed the solar panels in 2015. They are paying me 11pence per Kwh. How can I get this increase to cover my todays usage?! as it is not fait I am supplying the government with cheap energy and they are charging me 3 time my amount. Thanks 

mmmmikey

Tomasu said:

Hi Guys,

I have my FIT from Scottish power as this is when I installed the solar panels in 2015. They are paying me 11pence per Kwh. How can I get this increase to cover my todays usage?! as it is not fait I am supplying the government with cheap energy and they are charging me 3 time my amount. Thanks 

Hi, FIT payments go up automatically every year according to the rate of inflation. Are you sure it's FIT payments you receive not SEG or some other scheme? Did you pay for the panels in full or was there some sort of deal whereby the cost was subsidised?

Krakkkers

Everyone on the FIT scheme gets the same amount for the time period they were installed.
Mine were installed in NOV 2015 and i get 22p per Kwh including the deemed export.

Petriix

Tomasu said:

Hi Guys,

I have my FIT from Scottish power as this is when I installed the solar panels in 2015. They are paying me 11pence per Kwh. How can I get this increase to cover my todays usage?! as it is not fait I am supplying the government with cheap energy and they are charging me 3 time my amount. Thanks 

You're not supplying the government, you're supplying your neighbours and, by extension, slightly decreasing demand on the grid. 

The FIT payments you receive are a combination of a subsidy for everything you generate regardless of who uses it (you get first dibs so you're actually getting paid for energy that never leaves your house) plus an export rate which is based on the assumption that you export half of what you generate.

The good news is that you can switch to a metered export tariff and get paid up to 16.5p per kWh for what you export. However, it's a slightly complicated process and given your lack of understanding of the FIT system it might be better to stick with what you've got.