As part of the UK’s commitment to tackling climate change and reducing carbon emissions, the Government has set a goal of completely decarbonising the electricity supply by 2035.
To achieve this goal, millions of homes and businesses across the UK will need to start generating their own renewable electricity, which in many cases, will come from rooftop solar power.
Why solar panels are a worthwhile investment
1. Save money on high electricity costs
Analysts predict that energy costs will continue at the current high rate, long into the future. Since the electricity you buy from your energy supplier is so high, it makes economic sense to start generating your own on-site renewable energy wherever possible.
This will become even more important as our society transitions towards the electrification of heat and transport. Instead of using fossil fuels for our heat and power needs, we will increasingly rely on electricity to charge our electric vehicles and power our electric heat pumps.
Because electricity costs three to four times more than gas, it makes sense to use your own self-generated solar power to meet these needs.
It must be noted however that solar energy systems are more complicated than some people may think.
Considerations such as the mounting of the systems, the panel position, the type of equipment or brand, warranties and installer competence must all be factored in when designing a solar power array.
You need a trusted partner to make sure you get the best system for the best price.
2. Maximising your solar power consumption by improving the energy efficiency of your property.
By reducing the overall energy demand from your property, you will be able to meet a greater percentage of your electricity demand with electricity from your solar panels.
Introducing energy efficiency measures such as insulation, LEDs, and smart energy controls will reduce the amount of energy required to heat and power your property. Even a gas heating system uses some electricity for pumps, so turning it on less frequently saves electricity.
You can further maximise your use of self-generated solar power by installing modern smart energy appliances. High energy consuming appliances or machinery can be automated to operate at times of peak solar generation, maximising your savings by making efficient use of the electricity coming from your solar panels.
Want to know if your property is suitable for solar?
Find out with a BHESCo Energy Survey:
3. Combining your solar panels with an energy storage system
It would be ideal if you could use 100% of the electricity being generated by your solar panels throughout the day. It may make sense to store excess electricity that you are not using so that it can be accessed at the times you need it.
Introducing solar energy storage systems will enable you to use an even greater portion of the energy that has been generated by your solar panels, maximising your on-site usage and delivering greater savings on your investment.
As Time-Of-Use-Tariffs become more commonplace, the savings that can be achieved will only increase.
Determining the economic benefit of acquiring a battery is an important advantage of working with a community energy group to optimise the value of your system.
4. Sell your excess solar power to an energy supplier
Depending on the local grid capacity, you may be able sell the electricity that you don’t use to an energy supplier.
Through a mechanism called the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) you can enter into an export contract with suppliers who will agree to purchase electricity from you at a set price. This is only available for customers with a smart meter. For domestic customers to get the best export rates they must have an MCS certificate and agreement from the DNO (UKPN) for their system to be connected.
The prices offered by energy companies for the purchase of your excess electricity are usually much lower than the prices you pay to buy electricity from them. For this reason, whilst establishing an export contract will help to maximise financial value from your excess solar power, it is always much more economically beneficial to use as much of your solar power as possible.
Some tariffs like Octopus Flux are quite generous for solar export. They will pay around 10 pence per kilowatt hour (p/kWh) below the import rate for any excess, exported solar PV if you are happy to combine with a ‘Time of Use’ tariff which charges more at peak times, but also offers a night-time low rate. Flux requires customers to also have a battery (storage) but Octopus also offer export at quite a good rate (15 p/kWh). Other suppliers are raising prices to similar levels too.
There are also restrictions on how much power can be exported to the grid. Competent management of these issues is of vital importance, which is why you should consider partnering with a community energy group before embarking on this complex undertaking alone.
5. Enter into a Power Purchase Agreement
If you don’t want to use your cash savings to fund the upfront cost of installing solar panels, then you may consider entering into a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with an energy service provider.
As part of a PPA you agree to purchase the solar electricity generated from the solar panels that are installed on your roof at an agreed price. This allows you to benefit from solar energy without the upfront costs of purchasing and installing the panels.
For domestic properties, this could mean combining with your neighbours to establish a collective solar buying scheme. Working with an energy services provider, you and your neighbours can enter into a Power Purchase Agreement with a local ESCO who will pay for and install the solar panels on your behalf.
For larger commercial buildings this is more straight forwards. You agree to get the solar panels installed at no up-front cost by an energy services provider, and commit to buying electricity from the solar array at a set price for an agreed contract period.
BHESCo regularly install solar panels on behalf of our customers through a Power Purchase Agreement. We raise the upfront cost from our co-operative members who want to invest their savings into projects that tackle climate change. Our customer then buys the electricity generated by the solar panels at a significantly discounted rate compared to what they would pay to an energy supplier.
Once the upfront costs have been repaid to BHESCo, plus 5% interest that we pass onto our co-op members, ownership of the solar panels is transferred to the customer who then enjoys 100% of the savings achieved from the solar panels for the rest of their operational lifetime.
6. Make use of local grant initiatives
Whilst the Feed-In-Tariff may have come to an end, there are still many financial grants available throughout the UK to support property owners with the installation of solar panels.
For example, homeowners in Sussex may be able to take advantage of the Warmer Homes scheme, which provides grants of up to £10,000 (or £25,000 for off-gas properties) to support the installation of carbon reducing measures such as insulation, heat pumps, and solar panels.
On a national level, grants such as ECO4 can provide up to £14,000 towards energy-saving initiatives for your home if you qualify. For commercial properties based in the South East, programmes like LoCASE may be able to offer the finance you need to install a new solar power array.
We recommend doing some research to find out what grants and initiatives are available in your local area to help with the purchase and installation of renewable energy technologies.
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If you are interested in working with BHESCo to revolutionise the way that your business or organisation sources it’s heat and power then please provide your details in the form below and a member of our Projects Team will get back to you to discuss next steps.
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