The end of ever dropping residential solar prices?

The UK residential solar market seems have stabilised in terms of pricing: at the start of this year a 4kwp (16 panel) system could cost as little as £5,000 or as much as £7,500; currently a price range of around £5,500 to £6,500 is the norm in the market.

Caused by the minimum price for Chinese panels, this smaller price range combines with a trend away from cheap Chinese panels to ‘higher quality’ European and Japanese brands. This appears to be the end of a race towards ever-falling prices and allows installers to focus their selling on quality rather than quantity of materials, service and warranty.


It shows most installers are currently offering their best price for a 4kwp system at between £5,500 and £6,500. Previously there was a segment of the market offering rock-bottom-prices as low as £5,000, but the minimum price set by the EU on Chinese panels has either forced these companies to go out of business or pushed up their pricing.

Product-wise, most installers are picking ‘higher quality’ panels. These are either characterised by a more reliable brand (e.g. a large solar-PV company or a diversified electronics firm) or by product characteristics (all-black panels, higher Wp panels). Examples are the Yingli 275wp, LG 285wp or BenQ 325wp panels.

Systems costing less than £6,000 tend to be more likely to still use smaller Chinese brands, whereas those above £6,000 are more likely to use larger brands. We see a shift with many installers towards the use of European (e.g. Axitec, Bosch, Solarworld) or non-Chinese Asian manufacturers (e.g. LG, Hyundai), driven by consumer demand and the reduction of price difference with Chinese manufacturers.

A more mature market for residential solar seems to be appearing with stability in pricing and feed-in-tariffs. Over the past year many installers have also left the residential solar PV market or diversified into commercial solar or other renewable energies, which leaves a smaller installer base to focus on consumer demand. Compared to a year ago, those installers that remain focused on residential solar PV are certainly more positive, and relieved that site surveys can once again be about quality of materials, service and warranty rather than ever lower prices.
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UK solar installation heads for record

Installations of solar power in the UK are likely to top records this year, and could offset some of the expensive dependence on gas, research has found, but the global outlook for green energy is still gloomy.
Green energy could help to reduce bills, he said, pointing to some periods in the UK when, thanks to the contribution of wind power in particular, wholesale short-term prices had reduced considerably. "But that doesn't get passed through to the consumer, because there is no transparency in the market, and so people don't know about it. Yet you get this distortion of people saying [bill rises] are from green subsidies."
Investment in the UK was shored up by the falling price of solar components, which helped to spur installations. But "solar farms" taking up acres of land with solar panels have come under fire from some politicians and countryside campaigners.

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Is it time to put solar panels on your roof?

HOW WILL I EARN MONEY?

You’ll be paid a minimum sum for all electricity generated by your system, known as the Feed-In Tariff (Fit). You’ll currently get 14.9p per kilowatt hour (kwh) for each unit of electricity you create.

You get 4.6p for every unit sold back to the Grid. Together, these payments boost your savings because your on-site electricity reduces the bill from your normal supplier.

Sign up now and this tariff will be frozen for 20 years — and rises with inflation. The Energy Saving Trust estimates half of all the power created by homes with solar panels is sold back to the Grid.

WHAT SAVINGS ARE THERE?

About £800 a year, typically. For example, a family of four in a three-bed property who buy a 4kWh solar panel system will earn about £560 a year from their supplier just for generating the solar electricity.

On top of this, they will then make £90 from selling power back to the National Grid via their energy supplier.

And finally, they’ll typically knock £150 from their electricity bill by using their own power instead of buying it all from their supplier.

This works out as approximately £800 of savings in total.

To find out what kind of savings you could make, use the solar energy calculator on the Energy Saving trust website.

At these rates, you need to be prepared to stay in your current property for a minimum of eight years to make it worthwhile. The key to making big savings is to use as many of your appliances as possible in the daytime when you are generating your own power.

Your installer should show you how everything works and you must register the Feed-In Tariff.

A new meter then shows you how much energy is being generated — and how much you are exporting.


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5 live Energy Day 5th September

On Thursday 5th September we’ll find out, as we fill the public piazza at BBC North with solar panels, wind turbines, processed chip fat for biofuel and enough exercise bikes to keep Richard Bacon’s show on-air by pedal-power…if our guests and listeners can cycle fast enough!

It all starts at 7am when we switch on a specially constructed mini-grid. For the next 12 hours a temporary outside studio in the piazza will be powered only by renewable energy.

BBC 5 live Energy Day