If you want solar, act fast

[hedgewizard]

Because the government is halving the FIT tariff (subsidy) on all installations that aren't up and working by December 12th. So if you've been thinking about it, now's the time!

Just sayin'!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

It will be interesting to see how the price of solar installations moves once this change comes into force. Here in France it was made very clear that the purpose of the subsidy (and, in our case, tax credits too) was to "prime the pump" for renewables in general to start generating the economies of scale. Early doors as yet, but for once it seems that a government plan might actually stand a chance of working: the tariffs paid by EDF for solar power have been cut, and the cost of installations seems to be coming down in line.

I think this might be good news

[Big Al]

We've been going through the quotes for solar this last two weeks and they ranged from £10k to 15K for a 4kw set up mainly using sharp or sanyo panels.

Sods law said that we couldn't get the money to finance this so that's that for now but if the panels /systems come down to about 5K then the feed in tarrifs won't matter at 21p per Kw.

[Thomzo]

Typical, I finally got around to booking someone to come out yesterday and this was announced. Is it official yet? I was told that it was a leaked memo on Friday that might not come to anything.

Zoe

[wulf]

While I am all for people moving to more renewable energy sources, I thought it was a bit of a wheeze that the government was so strongly subsidizing solar power generation. The report I heard on the news last night suggested that the scheme is supported by higher prices on all bills, which means that those who can't afford permanent homes with large roofs are, in effect, paying for those who are benefiting from the scheme.

If it needs a large subsidy to work then perhaps the technology isn't fit for purpose and the answer is a combination of reduced usage and less grand schemes.

Wulf

[trappa]

Our solar panels get fitted tomorrow. Its a 2.2kw system i think and cost us just over 6k.

[Zech]

Surely it's too late by now? If you're only 'thinking about it' now, I can't imagine it would be realistic to get panels installed and commissioned by 12th Dec. I was chatting to neighbours who've just had some installed (good timing) and they thought we'd be lucky to get any put up by next April, as all the local installers are fully booked until then. I fear they may not be now

There is a consultation on this, of course, which has a closing date 11 days after the cut-off:

http://www.decc.gov.uk/assets/decc/11/c ... on-doc.pdf