Solar Electric PV – Costs and Benefits
Energy Grants for your Home
The return on your investment for your solar PV system depends on some key factors. For both solar thermal and solar PV, these include:
- What is your current electricity tariff? The more you pay for your electricity the better the will be returns from your PV. And as energy prices increase, your return improves.
- Are you selling your excess electricity and renewable certificates? With sales tariffs of over 10p per kWh available, this can benefit your return.
- Where do you live? Your return on investment for PV will be higher if you live in the sunny south west than north-east Scotland.
- Is the siting of your solar panels optimal? Partial shading (especially during the middle of the day) will reduce your return on investment.
- What is the cost of your installation? Higher installed costs mean a longer payback. Include any grant funding in your net cost calculation.
- What’s the overall system efficiency? A more efficient system at reasonable cost is better for your return on investment.
- For PV, make sure that you obtain any available grant. These can be worth up to £2,500 and this can make a big difference to payback.
For solar electric PV the returns are lower, ranging from 2% to 4% per year if all available grants and sales tariffs are included
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