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solar
The government's consultation published on 31st October focussed on ways of reducing Solar PV deployment. This resulted in feed in tariffs (FITS) being drastically reduced for solar. These tariffs will apply for all registered installations from December 12th although those registered between December 12th 2011 and March 31st 2012 will be able to receive the old tariffs until April 1st 2012.
Despite this reduction in (FITS) it is worth taking into consideration that Solar PV installations can still be cost effective. The capital costs of installing solar equipment has fallen markedly over the past few years and is expected to continue to fall. The planned incentives are also likely to see payback periods of 10-12 years, which although longer than before the tariff decrease, is still not too bad. The tariffs are also fixed for 25 years, once set, which should bring some security. Another benefit of solar PV is the reduction in bought-in electricity costs,which have been predicted to continue to rise.
Therefore although the (FITS) are set to decrease on December 12th, solar could still be a viable option by saving on energy costs.
Many of the issues relating to the renting of land for solar energy production, or establishing a solar farm yourself, are similar to those involved with a wind farm. However solar has a FIT set for 25 years rather than 20 years.
| | Tariff level (will be inflated annually) for new installations in period (p/kWh) | | Tariff lifetime (years) | | Scale | | Year 1: 12.12.11 - 12.12.12 | Year 2: 12.12.12 – 12.12.13 | Year 3: 12.12.13 – 12.12.14 | | | > 4-10 kW | | 16.8 | 16.0 | 16.0 | | 25 | | > 10-50 KW | | 15.2 | 14.5 | 14.5 | | 25 | | > 50 - 100 kW | | 12.9 | 12.3 | 12.3 | | 25 | | > 100 - 150 KW | | 12.9 | 12.3 | 12.3 | | 25 | | > 150 - 250KW | | 12.9 | 12.3 | 12.3 | | 25 | | > 250 KW - 5MW | | 8.5 | 8.1 | 8.1 | | 25 | | Stand Alone | | 8.5 | 8.1 | 8.1 | | 25 |
Unlike wind farming, solar requires a great deal of space to accommodate the panels, solar is however adaptable to the space that you have available. A 4KW system will power your farmhouse, office and other farm buildings. This size system will fit easily onto a barn roof. Larger scale production, or solar farming, of between 100KW and 5MW requires more space and at the time of writing solar farms are expected to spread over many acres.
Solar systems can easily be upgraded through the addition of extra solar panels. This enables producers to start small and increase the size of the system as the FIT return is realised.
Solar is currently not seen as being as controversial as wind farming as the disturbance is not as great.
Townsend Chartered Surveyors are independent advisors and are not tied to any technology suppliers, contractors or energy distribution network.
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