Homeowner Blog

You may think that solar PV is an established and accepted technology in the UK, but it’s surprising how many solar panel myths persist. At our last community event, a visitor confidently informed us that ‘Britain doesn’t get enough sun for solar power’, which may come as a shock to our clients, whose thousands of panels have been generating well for the last decade.

So let’s set out the facts to debunk common solar myths, from the misinformed to the absurd.

In a surprise piece of good news, the government announced last week that solar panel VAT will be scrapped until 2027.

Looking at Google search data, you can see how interest in solar panels has intensified since the energy crisis hit the news last autumn, and surged when the upcoming electricity price hikes were announced last month:

It’s now been three years since solar subsidies were phased out and tax rates first hiked, then dramatically scrapped. At the same time, electricity prices have continued to rise, especially during the recent energy crisis. So what does this mean for the economics of solar power? In short, are solar panels worth it today?

Speaking purely from a financial point of view, the answer is a resounding yes. Of course beyond the financial, there are many other benefits, including energy independence and reduced air pollution.

Back to the financials. The solar Feed-in Tariff subsidy may have ended, but the cost of the technology has fallen by more than 50% over the past decade. Overall the cost of domestic solar electricity is now around 9p per kWh. This is well below the 22.36p average domestic import cost from the grid (which, by the way, increased by an average 4.9% each year over the past decade...).

In just a few months, an energy crisis has become a cost of living crisis.

The energy crisis is largely driven by the cost of natural gas, which has rocketed due to global supply issues, Covid, and geopolitical tensions. The wholesale price of gas in January was about 4 times higher than the previous year:

The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) has now been in effect for over two years, since it came into law on January 1st 2020. It’s the mechanism to ensure solar PV owners are paid for the power they send to the grid, ending the policy void that existed since the Feed-in Tariff closed to new applicants in March 2019.

According to the SEG, energy suppliers with over 150,000 customers must offer an export tariff with a rate greater than zero. The SEG is available for customers with an MCS-certified renewable energy system under 5MW and a second generation smart meter.

With zero as the minimum, at the very least you can’t be charged for being relieved of excess solar power. However, suppliers don’t have to give you very much for it. So how much are they offering in practice?

‘I would get solar panels, but they’re just so ugly’ is an oft-heard refrain, from those who presumably prefer the polluting aesthetics of gas and coal plants. But they have a point. The traditional solar panels aren’t that pretty (though, we’d argue, no less so than TV aerials, satellite dishes and other rooftop paraphernalia).

The good news is that the days of glittering blue PV are in the past. We now only install black solar panels, which not only look a lot sleeker and more uniform, but generate more electricity. It’s win-win!

We often get enquiries from people who already have solar panels installed on their roof, but are keen to increase the amount of renewable energy they can produce. This might be because they had a battery fitted, or maybe their consumption has gone up with a new heat pump or electric car.

So what steps are there to overcome if you want to add more solar panels to your existing system to try and reduce your electricity bills even further?

Getting your latest electricity bill is rarely a fun experience, yet it seems to become ever more painful. With wholesale prices soaring, the energy industry is in turmoil and we will all end up bearing the financial brunt.

On top of this, the national grid has undergone a huge transformation in the past decade from coal-heavy to embracing wind and solar, the costs of which have crashed. So there’s a logical disconnect - why are electricity prices rising if renewables are getting cheaper?

Our industry rarely makes national news, but in recent weeks headlines have been dominated by the ‘energy crisis’. The crisis has hit energy suppliers across the UK, and in turn will affect all of us who buy energy from the grid. Escalating gas prices are crippling companies - millions of customers’ suppliers have already gone bust, with speculation that only 10 energy firms might survive the winter.

So how has this energy price crisis happened and what impact will it have on households with solar panels? And perhaps more importantly, can renewables help prevent a crisis like this in the future?