Cut-price or cut-throat?

[TedM]

Sunny Britain brings solar to UK homes for half the price - Solar Power Portal

Can the reported level of economies be delivered? Would you be prepared to knock 33% off the price of every installation if you were guaranteed a contract for 100 or 1000?

[edit]

Some installation quotes from SunnyBritain (you can find them via google) for my post code:

1.7kW £4,392
2.4kW £6,200
3.3kW £8,525
3.9kW £10,075

Are these realistically achievable? Do they represent a 33% saving?

 

[solarsavings]

It's a good job there is plenty of "proper" work about.

Their website makes for interesting reading. Are they a ltd company? advertising standards might be interested in their claims.

 

[MorganPVI]

If you pay 10k for a 3.9kwp system I guess you get the cheapest panels and the cheapest inverter. Your whole of life costs could potenially wipe out any saving you made upfront. I'm sure alot installers here are looking to build a long term buiness and installing crap will not make it easy for any company of the medium to long term.

We fit quality products that should last for 25 years and therefore have to charge a little more than 10k for a 3.9 system, its a good thing there are plenty of customers that understand - if you pay peanuts.........

 

[Markc]

101,000 homes...wow! They will be busy out of my area just in them.

 

[SRE]

Some pretty outrageous claims. In my area I can save 43% off the cost installing 4kwp (known as an extra large installation) so instead of paying £17k I pay £10k. Funny really because round our way quality installs with decent panels of 4kwp are betwen £13 - £14k. Then again they must be talking about extra special panels because you can save £350 a year off your electric - mind you - you'd need to be a little careful because the warranty on the panels is only for 20 years .....

Have you seen who is on the board!

 

[solarsavings]

Have you seen who is on the board!

:30::cheesy:

 

[solarfred]

10 myths about Solar « Sunny Britain

Look into my eyes - not around the eyes....

 

[Worcester]

At the heart of our operation is a committed and experienced leadership team working for you.

Barak Goldstein (CEO) is former head of cleantech investment at Arison Group and established the first solar fund in Israel aimed at institutional investors.
Moshe Bachar (Chairman) is a board member of the Israel Electric Company (IEC) and responsible for generation and transmission. He heads the IEC Round Table Forums with national environmental NGO's.
Rafi Elul (Board) is CEO of strategic consulting firm ISHRA. Previously an Israel MP, he continues to advice Presidential and prime Minister's offices and is chairman of 'Ruach Tova' – a national volunteer program.

More money for an overseas invetment company then

 

[Worcester]

And as usual, Not MCS, not Real, there is / was a similar operatiion to this going in the US, over there, they deliberately engaged with local installers paying a flat rate per install, they supplied all the materials.

 

[funboy57]

Defo cut-throat. I dont see why as an industry we have to do this. No point being a "busy fools" and it will probably give a bad public impression of the industry from bad jobs caused by rushing and cutting corners. The over heads are immense and we are constantly reinvesting back into the business, training, software, tools etc etc......

 

[Markc]

Defo cut-throat. I dont see why as an industry we have to do this. No point being a "busy fools" and it will probably give a bad public impression of the industry from bad jobs caused by rushing and cutting corners. The over heads are immense and we are constantly reinvesting back into the business, training, software, tools etc etc......

Couldn't agree more..........

 

[whlphil]

Interesting assumptions in their paybacks

[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: left"]electricity price per Kwh[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]0.139[/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: left"]annual RPI in FIT[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]0.035[/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: left"]inflation in energy prices[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]0.090[/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: left"]yearly degradation in efficiency[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]0.005[/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: left"]FIT[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]0.433[/TD]

[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: left"]export Tariff[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, align: right"]0.03[/TD]

3.5% RPI well maybe but 9% fuel price increase, hell maybe this year and next but cant see that for 25 years!! and who pays 13.9p kwh for electric.

Think they should point out that they are only assuming 12.5% degradation over life which puts them above the warranty limits, realistic given Fraunhofer's prior results (as long as they use quality panels - which at that price they cant be) but risky for the customer.