There Are Three Revenue Streams When You Install Solar PV

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Friday, May 11th, 2012

Just a very quick one today, as it’s a Friday.

Following a conversation with a customer yesterday, I just would like to very quickly clarify where your payback is coming from when you install solar photovoltaic panels.

  1. Primarily, your income stream is the feed-in tariff. This provides you with a payment for every unit that is generated by your system and you will be paid this whether you use it or not.
  2. Export of unused electricity forms the second stream. For domestic systems, and in fact all systems under 30kW, this is estimated as being 50% of everything your system generates. So in addition to your feed-in tariff income, you receive an export tariff for half of everything. It isn’t much in most cases – export tariffs are about 3p per unit at the time of writing.
  3. The third stream is money saved by using your solar-generated energy instead of expensive  grid energy. This will always be more profitable than exporting and as export is estimated generally anyway you’ll get the same amount for it no matter what. Therefore, the more free solar energy you use, the more you save, the shorter your payback period.

Hope this helps.

For detailed payback information for your property/system – contact us.

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Categories : Solar Panel Payback

One Really Good Reason Why EPCs Should NOT Stop You Going Solar…

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Thursday, May 10th, 2012

Is the requirement to have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of level D or above in order to claim the full feed-in tariff putting you off?

“What even is an EPC?!?” I hear you cry. Well, to explain that I’ll quote from our website:

An EPC is an energy efficiency assessment of your home; all properties require one when they are built, sold or rented. Like appliances, they are rated from A to G with ‘A’ being the highest level of efficiency. They contain information about the current performance of your property and give you a rank based on this. They also make recommendations about measures you could introduce to make your home more efficient, reduce your carbon emissions and boost your rating.

As you can see, EPCs are a basic energy efficiency rating system for your home. They cost £50-£80 (very generally speaking) and, broadly, the policy is a good idea – it prioritises saving energy over generating it (even though you could argue that these things are separate – lets not do that here).

You can also, I’m sure, see that this presents a problem for people who are unaware of what an EPC is, why they need one, how to get one… it’s just hassle.

Don’t bet before you know the result

The way we’ve handled this is to make it really easy. We’ve d0ne lots of research into the assessment criteria and can largely tell whether you are going to be a D or not over the phone and, if not, then at our consultation. This means you don’t spend any money until you’re fairly sure of a result.

We’ve also teamed up with a network of EPC assessors to make the process even easier. We will book the EPC (we charge £50) and just add it to your quotation and liaise with the assessor. You can just sit back and wait for your results.

Hopefully, this makes everything really simple. It would be a shame for it to be a reason not to explore the amazing benefits of solar PV anyway!

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Categories : EPCs

Renewable Heat Premium Payment Re-launches

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

The renewable heat premium payment scheme is back

Solar Thermal Evacuated Tube Installation

The renewable heat premium payment scheme (RHPP) launched it’s 2nd phase on Tuesday (1st May) – meaning customers can once more apply for £300 rebates on their solar thermal systems.

This is particularly good news in light of the further postponement of the domestic stream of the renewable heat incentive until 2013. Customers that install now will still be eligible for 20 years of RHI payments when it launches and gain the rebate as a further incentive.

All this is great for UK CO2 emissions – around 50% of which come from energy used to produce heat.

The Energy Saving Trust will again be managing the scheme and dealing with applications.

More on solar thermal.

Apply for the RHPP

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Categories : News & Events, Solar Hot Water
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Get £1,000 Discount Off A PV System With Southern Solar

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Friday, April 20th, 2012

£1,000 Discount on Your PV System with Southern Solar

Good News! We’re extending our offer from the Guardian last Saturday to our blog readers. You can now receive upto £1,000 off a solar system with Southern Solar – £250 per kilowatt, up to a maximum of 4kWp. Simply quote SPRING250 and sign up on our website (read the T&Cs first!) or call the office on 0117 953 9090.

What better way to mark our 10th anniversary with a bang?

The offer expires at the end of April, so you’ll need to be quick to make the most of it. With returns high currently anyway due to the feed-in tariff, this deal gives them a further boost – not to be missed.

Contact us now to guarantee your discount

 

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Categories : News & Events, Solar Electric, Solar PV
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Top 5 Reasons To Go Solar This April

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Friday, April 13th, 2012
brixton energy solar 1 community solar energy project

UK's first inner-city community-owned solar installation in Brixton

Do you find yourself veering away from solar PV now that tariff levels have changed? I think you may need to reassess. Sure, working in the industry I’m more than aware of the recent decrease in the feed-in tariff; but by the time it actually did come down, in March, costs had reduced by enough for it to remain viable. And yet I find myself swimming against the current.

Well, this is for all of you. 5 great reasons why solar PV is still one of the best energy products in the world today – this April especially:

1. Return On Investment. Yes, the feed-in tariff has reduced but so have prices – I’m sitting at my desk with a quote in front of me that estimates a 9.7% return on investment. Where else can you get that in today’s market?

2. PV Prices. Solar panel manufacturers continue to be pushed by falling tariffs around the world to produce cheaper and cheaper modules. Whilst it may be unrealistic to expect the kinds of reductions as we experienced last year in the future, they are certainly competitive right now.

3. Ease of Installation. It doesn’t take long to install solar panels and they are suited to all kinds of properties. There is a new EPC requirement to  ensure energy efficiency comes first, but beyond that there are relatively few restrictions.

4. Energy Prices. I’m sure you’ve noticed how these keep rising! Imported energy, over which we have little control, means we are at the mercy of wherever it comes from. Solar PV allows us to generate clean energy here in the UK; whether on an individual, commercial or community scale; and make a contribution that will help protect us from this uncertainty. It’s like buying your energy in advance.

5. Our Latest Offer. Here comes the sales bit: if you needed any other reason, take a look in the Guardian this Saturday. We’re offering a £250 per kilowatt discount, up to a value of £1,000, off solar PV system orders made before May 2012. Returns are pretty juicy already – for this month, they are amazing.

Act quickly and contact us with the offer code from the Guardian tomorrow.

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Categories : News & Events, Solar Electric, Solar PV
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Southern Solar at Bristol Green Doors

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Monday, March 19th, 2012

We give our support to the City’s best home retrofitting awareness project

Small crowd in the unfinished kitchen of an exemplar home at Bristol green doors

There was a turnout of over 70 people at 7 Berkeley Road on Saturday


Bristol Green Doors happened at the weekend (17th – 18th March) with over 40 houses, chock full of retrofitted sustainable measures, opening their doors to the general public. The aim is to raise awareness and demand for practical green measures that are crucial to upgrading our existing housing stock to reduce their impact on the environment, and also to protect their owners from rising energy bills.

We’re really proud to have sponsored the event, and were at 7 Berkeley Road in Bishopston, where we had installed solar thermal, to explain the technology and make cups of tea for people. It was a particularly good venue, being so close to Gloucester Road and a lot of the other participating houses as well as being very much a work in progress. Everyone could see the external wall insulation, the solar hot water tank, the beginnings of the heat recovery ventilation system – it was easy to visualise what is involved in installing these technologies and to understand what they are.

A scrawled sign reads: "Temp Floor for Green Doors!"

Berkeley Road was still a work in progress, but that's what made it so interesting.

The householders, Gavin and Carrie, were incredibly accommodating and led tours continually throughout the weekend, explaining the finer details of their ambitious retrofit project to anyone and everyone.

Green Doors is a fantastic project and plays an incredible part in increasing awareness of sustainable and energy efficient technology. Not only this, it boosts people’s confidence in actually installing measures themselves.

For all the details of our house: Gavin has tweeted a link to his website, that can also be found here, with details of all the measures installed in the property.

Did you go to Bristol Green Doors? What did you think about it? Has it inspired you to make your own energy improvements?

 

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Categories : Community, News & Events
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Referral Scheme: For April Only Get £100 For Recommending Your Friends!

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Thursday, March 15th, 2012

In our customer satisfaction surveys, our clients always tick the box saying they will recommend us to friends and family and, as such, a large proportion of our work comes via word of mouth recommendation from satisfied customers.

We thought it was time we rewarded this a bit more, so we’re launching a short term referral scheme offering £100 as a thankyou to customers who refer business to us.

This offer is effective from today, 15th March 2012, and expires on the 30th April 2012.

In order to benefit from the offer you must pass on a code, which is being emailed out today to past customers, and your nominated person must quote this code, along with your name, on the phone or via email, to us as part of their enquiry.

If that customer then goes on to have a system installed by us, we will send you £100.

If you have not received the email with the necessary code, please get in touch with the Bristol office and we will email it to you so that you can start reaping your rewards!

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Categories : News & Events
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Bristol’s Solar Map

By Phil Nelms · Comments (2)
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Bristol City Council’s investment may help make up your mind for you about solar.

Residents of Bristol can now estimate their property’s suitability for solar panels using a map that can be found on Bristol City Council’s website. By entering their house number and postcode, they can see their solar potential based on a colour-coded system. Not only this, by clicking on their house, they can also get estimates for the amount of sunshine their roof receives and the unshaded roof area.

The map will also give a potential PV system size, likely annual output and CO2 savings.

Hopefully, this will go some way to raising awareness of the solar suitability of properties in Bristol, as people can easily find out their potential generation and from that, using tools such as the Energy Saving Trust’s cashback calculator, find out their estimated payback via the feed-in tariff.

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Categories : News & Events, Solar Electric, Solar PV
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Local Community Energy Funding

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Help get your project off the ground

Harveys Community Solar Group Photo

Southern Solar and OVESCo celebrate the completion of the Harveys Brewery Installation

Funding opportunities from organisations around the south west are plentiful right now. Whether or not your community group has already benefited from the lucrative LEAF funding issued by DECC earlier in the year – there are more chances to provide that extra cash injection to help get your project off the ground, or provide important energy efficiency measures to, say, allow your community building to hit EPC level D and qualify for the full FIT.

Western Power Distribution Community Chest

Western Power Distribution are putting £50,000 in to a grant scheme to be administered by the Centre for Sustainable Energy. Groups can be awarded a maximum of £1,000 each for simple, effective energy efficiency measures.

There are also free resources and advice on auditing your community building to find out which measures will confer the greatest benefit. It could be invaluable for community solar projects looking to install from April 2012 when the feed-in tariff  EPC requirement comes in.

Bristol Green Capital Community Challenge Fund 2012

Round 5 of the CCF is now open – closing date is Friday 9th March. This time round there is a key focus on energy related projects, regarding energy efficiency, energy generation or from an educational point of view.

There is a pre-application workshop tomorrow at 3pm and again at 6pm at the Create Centre in Bristol which you can book onto via the website.

Warm Streets, Somerset

There have been some changes to the criteria for the existing Warm Streets insulation initiative that is ongoing in Somerset. This is dependent upon area:

BathNES council and Mendip District Council -  loft insulation (where your current depth is less than 99mm) and cavity wall insulation (though only standard bead) are now available for free to all residents.

Some residents in Sedgemoor, Taunton Deane and West Somerset, depending on eligibility, may be able to upgrade their insulation to the superior Diamond Bead product free of charge; for others it will be just £49 to benefit from better performance insulation.

All these offers are subject to survey and availability of funding – to apply directly, call 0800 082 2234.

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Categories : Community, Feed-in Tariff, News & Events
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The Feed-in Tariff, and Where We Are Right Now #1

By Phil Nelms · Comments (0)
Friday, February 10th, 2012

The Dept. of Energy and Climate Change has released their response to the consultation on the comprehensive FIT review phase 1 and, also, phase 2 of said consultation.

Phase 1

The response to phase 1 sets out the PV FIT rates from April up to July – 21p for ≤4kW – from an eligibility date of March 3rd (or December 12th 2011 if certain court proceedings go their way…). This means that installations from the eligibility date onwards will receive 43.3p until April 1st, from which point they will receive the 21p rate.

From April, proof of EPC level D will also be required for installations that wish to claim the full FIT. Those who cannot demonstrate that they hit this requirement will receive a lower rate of 9p/kWh.

Multi-installation tariffs will apply to FIT recipients with more than 25 installations. These are set at 80% of the standard tariffs for solar PV installations.

 

So, 21p for standard domestic installations is due to continue into the summer, although, if you have an EPC of level E and below then your best bet is to install before April or face a certain amount of expense/hassle upgrading your home in order to get the standard FIT level. If you’re sitting pretty with a D or above then it’s plain sailing until the July, when another large cut rears its head and sets off another solar gold-rush.

 

Next Week: Phase 2 consultation: further cuts and cost control mechanics from DECC.

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Categories : Feed-in Tariff, News & Events, Solar Electric, Solar PV
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