Is solar electricity wothwhile ?

[Eco Deal]

Bank 5% ROI in a long term ISA
Moneys gone (dont forget that as a buyer)

14% + Free electric surely that 14% figure is including the free electric ?

However in saying that it is a good investment, I wouldnt sell it as hard as the figures above.

YES IT INCLUDES
£239 per year fuel bill saving
£717 FITS payment
£52.95 export tariff

PER year

South facing 4kw
F

 

[pwboston]

Thats better, the way you had it first time, im thinking you must be installing better panels than me

 

[tex431]

Who pays the subsides ? everyone else who has not got solar panels. Is that fair I ask?

 

[tex431]

Who pays the subsides ? - everyone else who has not got solar panels. Is that fair I ask?

 

[SolarCity]

Who pays the subsides ? - everyone else who has not got solar panels. Is that fair I ask?

Unless you can think of a better system?

 

[FB.]

Solar panel systems on 43p FITS, (if invested wisely) will be paid off in 9 years or less.

Future 43p UK FITS payments on a 3-4 KW solar system will approximately cover gas and electricity payments on the average house for the next 16 years!

You also have the potential to use more of the energy you generate into the future as the technology improves.

If thats not a good investment I dont know what is.

In time many people will regret not having a solar system installed at 43p UK FITS.

Oh, I agree about 43p FiT - it was one of the best investment opportunities I've yet seen, when we take into account the rewards and the risks.

But now that the FiT is 21p (or will be very soon) and with talk of 16p in the second half of 2012, it's not nearly the easy money that it once was.
However, in fairness, it should not be too easy money because someone else has to pay for it and solar PV is nowhere near as risky as most other investments.
While subsidies are not a big impact on household bills at the moment (estimated to add a few pounds per year), but if the government hits its EU-set target of 30% from renewables by 2020, and if by chance, it was all solar with a 43p FiT, then 30% of our power would have a cost of 43p per kWh and two-thirds would have a cost of 14p. The average cost being 23p by 2020 not even including the effect of price increases. To add over 60% to household bills (not even counting inflaiton) within eight years would be unbearable for those not fortunate enough to have the generously-subsidised PV.

I actually think that a fair PV FiT would be about 27p per kWh at present, falling by 1p every three months.

But regardless what you or I think, we have a 21p FiT.

 

[SolarCity]

and if by chance, it was all solar with a 43p FiT, then 30% of our power would have a cost of 43p per kWh and two-thirds would have a cost of 14p. The average cost being 23p by 2020 not even including the effect of price increases. To add over 60% to household bills (not even counting inflaiton) within eight years would be unbearable for those not fortunate enough to have the generously-subsidised PV./QUOTE]

To be fair, this was never going to be the case. The aim was to bring down the FITs gradually over a number of years so 60% is about a billion miles away from the real figure. That said, if you were to ask me if I thought that an increase of 60% on energy bills would be an acceptable cost for a situation where 30% of our energy came from solar then I'd say it's a good thing.

 

[danesol]

For me.... it was a good calculated & rewarding risk, just like FB - thinking through all the different scenarios ( worse case ), but anyone who like me was able to get their system installed before DOS day at 0.433p FiTs are, if they stay in their homes for at least 10yrs will be surely printing money thereafter and the longer you stay in that property the more ROI you will achieve..............hoping that is that your kit doesnt default much :drunk:

However, in my situation installing over the winter, until recently doesnt give you the best confidence in ensuring a postive ROI where you are really scrapping the barrel with low generation figs, however I can now see the light as my system is now starting to produce daily +10kwh per day..... and this can only get better and better as we get to the summer mths.

The one thing I wasnt completely ofey with ( and actually didnt estimate correctly at all) was the actual amount of electric it would save me on a daily basis given I had assumed 70% which is NO WHERE close, even with my wife working from home. This is where we have totally un estimated our cost saving, even with changing our electric habits considerably, we still dont save or able to use that amount of electric through the day unless she is using the dishwasher, washing machine and the tumble dryer which on a sunny day doesnt make sense ( morally or financially ), hence why I'm now looking at Sunny Backup, but I think the additional cost may put stop to that idea ??

We use normally 20-25kwh per day ie 380watt/hr during the night and between 4pm and 11pm this rises to well over +1KW with 2 large plasma TVs etc on the go. So from my own findings unless you can use or save the actual full amount of energy been sent to the grid which you are not using during the day, you could never see passed 30% self useage IMO

All in all, its looking good so far though.....

 

[dc0106]

Hi
I have 16 PV panels which produce up to a nominal 3.2 kw. I paid £11000 for the whole installation including, fit ,scaffolding, inverter etc.
Since June 6 I have earned nearly £1000 to date based on 41.3p /kwh produced. I will get this inflation proof for 25 years. I also get free electricity only when I'm using less than what I'm producing. My estimated payback time is approx 10 years. I do have pretty much an optimum roof angle/ direction. I have been told the inverter will probably break after 10- 15 years at a cost of £1000. Panels are guarenteed to have 90% of output after 10 years and expected output after 20 years of aboyt 85%.

I don't think that at the reduced rate of 21p/kwh it is worth the cost of installation unless these costs are dramatically reduced or the price of electricity you buy from the grid increases significantly compared to inflation in the future.

 

[danesol]

Hi
I have 16 PV panels which produce up to a nominal 3.2 kw. I paid £11000 for the whole installation including, fit ,scaffolding, inverter etc.
Since June 6 I have earned nearly £1000 to date based on 41.3p /kwh produced. I will get this inflation proof for 25 years. I also get free electricity only when I'm using less than what I'm producing. My estimated payback time is approx 10 years. I do have pretty much an optimum roof angle/ direction. I have been told the inverter will probably break after 10- 15 years at a cost of £1000. Panels are guarenteed to have 90% of output after 10 years and expected output after 20 years of aboyt 85%.

I don't think that at the reduced rate of 21p/kwh it is worth the cost of installation unless these costs are dramatically reduced or the price of electricity you buy from the grid increases significantly compared to inflation in the future.

I agree and thinking about it, a fairer way would of been, NOT having a payback FiT at all, as saving the climate shouldnt really be happening IMO at the sametime as linings the pockets of those like me who could afford such an home improvement.

A fairer way would of been letting the government's "money pot" actually pay for the whole installation on your property and you merely gain the FREE electricity from your roof, and this privledge stays with you and is passed down with the various house owners of that property until such time when the equipment needs replacement.

This way, every suitable home could of been covered cheaply and effectively and the Solar PV industry would be stable and profitable and we as home owners could of done our bit too, instead of all of us looking at it, at an alternative to poor ROI from banks and other financial investments !

 

[Vegelen]

I have been told the inverter will probably break after 10- 15 years at a cost of £1000

Inverters dont have to be replaced, they can be repaired for significantly less.
The weakness of many inverters are the capacitors.
People throw away, in preference to getting things fixed because companies don't encourage repairs and make them appear uneconomic.

 

[danesol]

Inverters dont have to be replaced, they can be repaired for significantly less.
The weakness of many inverters are the capacitors.
People just choose to throw away and replace because thats what they get used to doing.

This is exactly why I chose an SMA SunnyBoy Inverter, as I can have a px replacement unit from their factory in MK overnight for 300euros apparently............

 

[Vegelen]

Certain makes of inverters have longer standard warrantys than others.
Solar Edge and Fronius give 12 years standard on their inverters and SMA give 5 years.
As Danesol mentioned above repaired SMA replacement inverters can be obtained for much less.
This is probably for HF transformer based inverters as transformerless TL inverters are fairly new.

 

[SolarCity]

A fairer way would of been letting the government's "money pot" actually pay for the whole installation on your property and you merely gain the FREE electricity from your roof, and this privledge stays with you and is passed down with the various house owners of that property until such time when the equipment needs replacement.

Is that really fairer? Who decides which homeowner gets the panels?

 

[danesol]

Certain makes of inverters have longer standard warrantys than others.
Solar Edge give 12 years standard on their inverters and SMA give 5 years.
As Danesol mentioned above repaired SMA replacement inverters can be obtained for much less.
This is probably for HF transformer based inverters as transformerless TL inverters are fairly new.

As promised;

Device Replacement. SMA Solar Technology AG