The UK's Solar Feed-in Tariff: Let your solar panels earn you money

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Solar Energy Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) for UK Households

At long last the clouds have parted and the UK has followed its European neighbours to announce a solar feed-in-tariff. The Clean Energy Cash back Scheme announced in February 2010 was launched on 1 April 2010 and will run for 25 years. Householders will now be paid a rate of up to 21p/kWh for electricity they generate.

Installations completed after March '12 will only be eligible for the higher tariff rates if the property is rated at Level D or above on the EPC (Efficiency Performance Certificate) chart. So act now to avoid the possibility of further expenses to reach this required level of efficiency.

According to Government figures this would result in up to £770 (in year 1, due to the tariff being indexed) per year in tax free income, and a £223 (in year 1, due energy price inflation and based on 50% export) saving on electricity bills for a 4kWp solar installation (starting from £6,400 inc VAT). This offers a Rate of Return of approximately 16%!!

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) aims to get 7 million owner-occupied and rented households in the UK hooked up with solar by 2020.

Read Solar Selections blog articles about Solar Feed-in Tariffs in the UK

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A breakdown of the various feed-in tariff levels:

-Tariff for <4kW retro-fit PV installs = 21.0p/unit (in year one*).

-Tariff for <4kW new build PV installs = 21.0p/unit  (in year one*).

-Tariff for >4-10kW PV installs = 16.8p/unit  (in year one*).

-Tariff for >10-50kW PV installs = 15.2p/unit (in year one*).

-Tariff for >50kW - 150kW = 12.9p/unit (in year one*).

-Tariff for >150kW - 250kW = 12.9p/unit (in year one*).

-Tariff for >250kW - 5MW = 8.5p/unit (in year one*).

-Tariff for off-grid PV installs = 8.5p/unit (in year one*).

*Guaranteed 25 year tariff lifetime with annual raises indexed to inflation. Therefore the tariff in year one should be the lowest tariff that is received for each kWh.

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