Fitting solar panels could make financial sense when the government pays up to 44p a unit for home-grown electricity
Patrick and Frances Colquhoun are happy pensioners. Since they installed solar panels on the roof of their five-bedroom detached home on the outskirts of Cambridge last July, they have seen substantial reductions in their energy bills. Things look set to get even better for the couple, and others embracing the micro-generating revolution, after the government announced details last week of the rewards it will pay homeowners who generate their own electricity.
The Clean Energy Cash Back scheme — which will start on April 1 and apply to systems completed between July 15, 2009, and March 31, 2012 — introduces a series of so-called “feed-in tariffs” (FITs). These give homeowners up to 41.3p per kWh (kilowatt–hour) of electricity they generate from renewable sources, even if they use it themselves. That is about four times the market cost of electricity — and there’s a bonus 3p for each unit they export back to the grid. It is all part of the government’s effort to provide 15% of the UK’s energy through renewable means by 2020.
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