New tariff for selling your electricity to the grid

[jazzactivist]

From April 2010 the money that you receive from electricity companies in the UK if you sell them your excess energy from home micro generators is to go up, similar to the system in Germany. This will apparently make it more viable for people to install solar panels and wind turbines at our own homes. For people who care about recouping their outlay, it will mean that you will recoup your costs in 10 years instead of the current 15. In the case study in Permaculture mag, a 2.1kW system providing enough electricity for a 3 bedroom house costs £8700 plus grants, and the couple will see a return of £700 per year after April.

I don't fully understand how it all works and would love to know as I really like the idea of installing solar power, but just to get rid of having to buy from mega-companies rather than bothering about recouoping the cost of the outlay. It is useful to know that it would pay for itself though so there would be a double benefit.

[dragonfly]

I quite fancy it too Jazz. Apart from the cost I would like to be self sufficient and not prone to the energy cuts they are predicting.

[purcell]

The finalised rates for PV microgeneration, included in the Government's announcement on Monday, are higher than originally planned. SolarUK has already seen a great deal of interest in photovoltaics in the last few weeks, so homeowners are clearly viewing the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff as a genuine spur to generating their own electricity... the payback times now look a lot shorter. For private individuals, there won't be any income tax to pay.

The owner of a small-scale (less than 4kW) system should earn over £1000 a year, assuming they're generating about 2300kWh per annum. The rate for small-scale 'retrofit' installations will be 41.3p/kWh, dropping down slightly to 37.8p/kWh in the third year.

[jazzactivist]

Thanks purcell. The information that you have provided is really clear and encouraging. Since you seem to know a lot about it, do you think that it is possible to provide for all lighting, cooking and water heating in summer using solar panels or photovoltaics? I am keen to not have gas when we move, and to try to be completely self-sufficient by using a woodstove / wood-fired Esse for winter heating, cooking and hot water and solar for summer. Also, if I don't want to sell excess energy back to the national grid is it possible to route it to outbuildings or neighbours? Like dragonfly, I am really keen to become self-sufficient and reduce our use of fuels and our carbon footprint, and kicking the greedy energy companies into touch would just be the cherry on the cake for me.

[purcell]

An average home's PV system would be around 2kW, with an array of around 10 - 15 square metres, and would perhaps supply about a half of the homes energy needs over the course of the year. It would depend of the technology behind the particular panels you buy, and how they are mounted. It's sunlight rather than direct heat that's needed, and there will be diffuse light even on a cloudy day in winter. However, it's during the summer that you will have more energy than you'll need. As for rerouteing the energy to outbuildings, I'm afraid I haven't come across this before...perhaps some more research is needed!

With a solar hot water system, your panels should provide virtually all your hot water needs during the summer months, assuming it's an advanced and correctly installed system. Over the course of the year it should supply about 70% of your needs.