How Installing Solar Panels Pays In More Ways Than One
There are dozens of ways that installing solar panels for your house or business pays you back after the initial investment and installation – but there’s one that you may not know about.
If you live in the UK, the government’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT) provides further financial benefits for those with solar panels, which we’ll explain in this article, along with all the other ways that you can make money through taking part in the solar panel green initiative.
Find out more about FIT here, and more ways that your investment in solar energy will pay you back.
What is FIT
Basically, with this scheme, you get paid for electricity that you generate with eligible renewable energy systems, like photovoltaic (PV) solar panels.
If there is surplus energy produced by your panels that you don’t use, you can sell it. As well as earning you money, this also encourages energy efficiency in the home or business, as you make more money with the less energy you personally use.
You can get paid and save money under the FIT scheme in three ways:
- Your energy supplier pays you a set rate per unit of electricity you make, with the ‘generation tariff’,
- Your energy supplier will then pay you a little more for every unit you export back to the grid (the ‘export tariff’).
- Your electricity bills will decrease or even be eliminated. You only pay for electricity you use from the grid, i.e. when you haven’t produced enough electricity yourself. If you produce enough to cover your usage as well as a surplus, you’ll make money from your supplier.
Further Benefits of Switching to Solar Energy
As you can see, the government are making the installation of solar panels an even more attractive prospect, to get more people to switch to green energy. Not only are you powering your own home or business with green energy and reducing your carbon footprint, but you could be providing renewable energy for others AND getting paid for it.
There’s never been a better time to contact a green energy solutions company near you, who will be happy to discuss all the benefits of investing in solar panels with you, plus provide you with reliable installation from experts.
Here are some of the other massive benefits to installing solar panels, financial or otherwise:
- Solar PV panels don’t release any harmful pollutants or carbon dioxide like regular non-renewable energy. The average home solar PV system could save around 1.5 to 2 TONNES of carbon per year – an incredible reduction to your carbon footprint, helping you on your way to becoming carbon neutral.
- A typical home PV system in London could earn you up to £250 in Feed-In Tariff payments per year, and save you £70 on your electricity bills per year. These figures vary from place to place, but show great savings for a family home.
- It’s worth bearing in mind that larger systems are usually more cost-effective than small systems. The initial cost may be more, but the more energy produced, the more you’ll make and save; therefore the faster it will pay for itself.
- Of course, alongside all the financial benefits, the main takeaway from switching to green energy is reducing your impact on the environment. It helps towards decreasing our collective dependency on fossil fuel, reduces air and ocean pollution, and makes a small step towards a better world for everyone. If everyone made a conscious effort to move away from fossil fuels, we could dramatically reduce negative effects on climate change and the environment.
If you are still unsure about all the benefits that a renewable energy system could bring to you, there are solar energy calculators available online (a good one can be found at the Energy Saving Trust website). This will show you a personalised calculation of the energy bill savings you could make, and the payments you could receive through FIT.
About the Author Jess Nielsen
Jess has spent years travelling the world full-time. Nothing else comes close to the reaches of this emotive activity...