Britain’s households rake in record £31m from solar panels

[smegal]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... ar-panels/

British households made a record £31m from rooftop solar panels last year following a surge in installations.

Energy providers paid out £30.7m to 283,666 households that exported renewable energy back to the grid, according to figures from Ofgem’s Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme.

It comes as Ed Miliband pursues a “rooftop revolution” to triple Britain’s solar power generation. The Energy Secretary has called solar panels a “win-win technology”.

Rising electricity prices and falling installation costs have led to a surge in rooftop solar installations in recent years.

Meanwhile, the SEG scheme allows households to sell electricity back to energy suppliers if they are generating too much to power their homes.

Energy providers are required to offer an export tariff, although they can set their own rates. The scheme is not subsidised by taxpayers.

The number of households using the scheme more than tripled last year, rising from 92,946 in 2022.

A spike in household bills following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has meant more households considering rooftop solar panels to save money. In addition, the Conservative government eliminated VAT on solar panels in 2022 which made them cheaper, and a production boom has since pushed prices down further.

Article continues....

[nowty]

Paywall removed version,
https://archive.ph/YwjNG

[smegal]

Paywall removed version,
https://archive.ph/YwjNG

Thanks. The graphs are worth seeing, so the link above is worth a read.

[John_S]

Interesting reading.

But some lazy journalism. Firstly, no mention of the actual kWhrs that were paid for.

Secondly, some, perhaps a lot, of the energy exported will be by people like me who arbitrage charging batteries on IOG cheap rate and exporting at a higher rate of 15p. Nothing to do with solar, although I also export some solar. This will increase when more EVs have V2G

Thirdly, it is incorrect to say that the south of England benefits from more daylight hours. Everywhere has an average of 12 hours of daylight per day throughout the year. Although, I accept that the sun's altitude is higher in the South of England which will increase the amount of irradiation.

[nowty]

The article does say 238 GWh (further down) for that £31m so I make that an average of 13p / kWh.

"The SEG’s annual report said 238 gigawatt hours were exported through the scheme last year, almost four times the amount in 2022 and equivalent to powering 88,198 homes for a year."

[John_S]

Thanks. Must have missed that.

I am surprised how high the 13p per kWh is. There must be a sizable number of people exporting at 27p to offset all the BG and Ovo customers. I thought 15p with Octopus was good. Who pays 27p?

[nowty]

Thanks. Must have missed that.

I am surprised how high the 13p per kWh is. There must be a sizable number of people exporting at 27p to offset all the BG and Ovo customers. I thought 15p with Octopus was good. Who pays 27p?

Probably Octopus Flux but you have high import costs and different export rates for different hours of the day.
https://www.sunsave.energy/solar-panels ... -seg-rates

[Stinsy]

Thanks. Must have missed that.

I am surprised how high the 13p per kWh is. There must be a sizable number of people exporting at 27p to offset all the BG and Ovo customers. I thought 15p with Octopus was good. Who pays 27p?

Probably Octopus Flux but you have high import costs and different export rates for different hours of the day.
https://www.sunsave.energy/solar-panels ... -seg-rates

What if one house was on IOG and the house next door was on Flux and they shared a battery?

[AE-NMidlands]

It seemed to me that the headline is a continuation of the Tories' vendetta against alternative/renewable energy (the "Green crap") Anybody else see this? "Raking in" to me is a pejorative description of exploitation - or am I being over-sensitive? I still can't get over the number of relatively intelligent acquaintances who still think RE is a pinko/subversive conspiracy!

Most sane people accept that need to cut fossil fuel use and can see that roofs generating for the house or for their neighbours have a myriad of benefits. What's not to like?
A