You heard it here first. Sources recently disclosed to me that we can expect an announcement from the UK government concerning the feed-in-tariff in mid-to-late January.

You may well be aware that while the government has committed to launching a feed-in-tariff program to support renewable energy, it has not confirmed the value of the proposed tariff yet. Numbers have been suggested, but we do not know the exact price per kWh of energy that will be paid to producers and this is causing significant problems for the UK PV industry when advising customers.

The long-awaited announcement will be closely scrutinized to see whether the UK government is serious about meeting its renewable energy targets. Given that the UK is the last major European economy to introduce a feed-in-tariff program (by a considerable margin) the industry will be hoping that the price set will be strong enough to allow the UK to gain some of the lost ground.

Solarfeedintariff.co.uk, the group of solar energy specialists dedicated to green issues and leading exponents of solar energy has announced that it will be offering a solar installation quotation service via its website.

To request a quote CLICK HERE

The service will help both businesses and homeowners navigate the often complex world of green investments by offering advice as to the best solar packages available.

With a broad range of experience in the solar photovoltaic sector, solarfeedintariff.co.uk is aware that many investors in solar panels are put off by the all too confusing array of products and technology available in the market.

Solarfeedintariff.co.uk will seek to eradicate any confusion and clarify doubts by offering the right product to customers depending on their needs.

Ian Spencer, Managing Director of Solarfeedintariff.co.uk stated that,

“Ever since the website was launched, we have had enquiries requesting quotes for Solar Installation, especially with the Feed In Tariff (FIT) due to be launched in April. WE are now delighted we can offer this services, using one of the leading Solar Installation firms in the UK”

With great opportunities available to reduce energy costs and of course, help slow the process of global warming solarfeedintariff.co.uk will be rolling out a service which will help both households and businesses save money, also taking advantage of the UK government’s Clean Energy Cash Back System, designed to incentivise investments in green energy through cash rewards.

With a vast array of products on the market, often from far away manufacturing bases in the far east, it can often be difficult for first time solar panel purchasers to discern the good companies from the… not so good and to calculate whether attractive looking offers are actually as great value as they first appear.

With a sharp eye on the market and with a passion for promoting solar installation in the UK, Solarfeedintariff.co.uk is keen to make the whole process of solar panel purchase and installation as smooth as possible, offering peace of mind to customers and promoting customer friendly, ethical companies.

Ian Spencer added,

“We expect the demand for Solar Installation quotes to rapidly rise the nearer we get to April and the dramatically increase on the Feed In Tariff is more widely recognised and known about. Therefore, we are pleased to be able to offer this service now for all of our site visitors”

To request a quote CLICK HERE

‘Where should we put solar panels anyway?’ This is a question I’m often asked and to which I always reply, ‘everywhere!’ Glibness aside, what the question is usually getting at is to do with market segmentation. There are many different types of photovoltaic (PV) installations. One of the remarkable aspects of solar technology is just how scalable it is. Solar panels are used in both pocket calculators and in giant solar farms covering hundreds of hectares. The economics of each application are very different however and it is important too understand which applications represent the largest markets.

As I’ll discuss the, UK feed in tariff is designed to strongly influence the type of solar installations built in the UK, but what kind of solar installations are best and what should we expect in the UK?

Let’s look at what’s going on in other countries around the world. In Germany, the world’s biggest solar market by far this year, grid-connected solar systems are defined in three categories; residential, commercial and utility scale. Residential scale is the smallest type of installation and refers to all installations less than 10kW (~60m2) typically found on private houses. Commercial scale refers to installations between 10kW and 100kW (600m2) typically found on the roof of a factory, office or warehouse. Utility scale refers to all installations above 100kW and these are typically ground-based installations on fields (also known as solar farms) and can cover hundreds of hectares.

These three types of installation are quite different from each other in terms of price and the technology used. Which type of installations are the most popular? Figures published by the Bundesnetzagentur (the German grid regulator) state that the market in 2009 is divided into 17% in the residential scale, 17% in utility scale and 66% in commercial scale. This means that because residential installations are smaller, there are many more of them in number than utility scale installations.

Large plants are cheaper due to economies of scale, however the planning process can be long and complex, and it can be difficult to find banks willing to loan money for such projects. Rooftop plants on the other hand have a much easier time getting planning permission, and often are fully funded by the owner, so don’t require a loan. This explains why commercial scale rooftop plants dominate the market.

In the US, rooftop installations also dominate, and there is an additional reason why. In the US there is no feed-in-tariff, rather a complex array of grants that vary from state to state (California has the best).

Solar installations generate money by selling electricity to the energy utility at the regular unsubsidized rate. This means if you generate energy at the place where you use it, you get the same price of electricity that you would have to buy it at, the retail price. On the other hand, if you have a utility scale power plant, this requires the utility to distribute the energy for you and you only get the price that other types of power stations get, the wholesale price. Since wholesale electricity prices are roughly half that of retail electricity prices, its much better to have a solar installation in the same place as where you use it, i.e. on your roof.

So what does this mean for the UK? Well, as we are led to believe from the governments initial announcement, the UK feed-in-tariff will be strongly weighted towards smaller installations. This means that the larger your installation the less you will be paid for the electricity it generates. This cutoff is quite severe, with the rate dropping from 36p to 31p per kWh for installations over 4kW, to 28p for installations over 10kW and down to 26p for installations bigger than 100kW.

The argument behind this is so that all installation deliver an equal return on investment. This implies that the government assumes the cost of energy from a solar installation is 14% lower for a 5kW installation than for a 4kW installation.

Where does this assumption come from? Data from Germany suggests that this is not the case and the 14% drop does not exist. Cost of energy does fall with increasing scale but by how much is unclear and changes constantly with prices of various technologies.

I can understand if the government wants to ban solar farms (although having visited several under construction in Germany last month I think it’s a real shame that we don’t have a single solar farm in the UK, even just from an educational standpoint) but the current FiT structure does something else. It restricts the most effective type of photovoltaic installation, namely commercial scale rooftops.

Germany’s flat feed-in-tariff structure and the US’ grant scheme both allow the market to evolve naturally. If large rooftop installations make the most sense economically then why not let this segment grow fastest? Trying to engineer a feed-in-tariff so that everything grows at the same speed will inevitably slow growth overall.

Let’s hope changes are made while there’s still a chance.

Consultants Ernst & Young have released their annual global renewable energy country attractiveness indices with the big news being that China has knocked Germany from its number one spot, a position which they have enjoyed for the last seven years. The report indicated that in the lead of attractiveness are the US and China followed by Germany, India and Spain.

With various leading economies around the globe vying to become leaders in the renewable energy sector the Ernst & Young indices provides a tangible demonstration of how attractive the competing markets are to investors based on the measures taken by the respective governments. The commitments by the Chinese government to slow climate change through the reduction of carbon emissions has certainly been reflected in their rise in the investment indices.

Once the pariah of the international community with regards to fighting climate change, the Beijing government has demonstrated through legislation that they have a very earnest desire to slow the effects of climate change.

Recently the Chinese government announced 1.8 GW of solar installation throughout the vast country with investment incentivisation coming in the form of the Golden Sun subsidy scheme designed to transform the Chinese solar market from a purely manufacturing base into a world leader in solar PV installation. This, the report indicated was the key feature in China moving up the table from sixth place in 2007 to the joint number one position enjoyed today.

The report will come as an early Christmas present for the nations perched in the top 5 positions as it gives investors a comprehensive assessment of the most viable markets in which to invest based on criteria such as existing infrastructure, incentives and location benefits.

With the success of China as a potential solar PV market, analysts in the UK will not have missed the direct correllation between government action and market attractiveness, something which the report explicitly highlighted. The UK enjoyed limited success, moving up one point to sixth, an increase based on limited government action taken so far in the form of the creation of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), the introduction of the Energy Act in November 2008 and the recent announcement of the Clean Energy Cash Back system, essentially a feed-in tariff to be introduced in April 2010.

The UK’s position of sixth could be bettered by the next indices published by Ernst & Young at the end of 2010 but will depend greatly on the initial successes of the UK market in the light of the newly implemented tariff system. At the present moment members of the lobby group We Support Solar are arguing that the UK government will have to increase the tariff rate if the UK is to compete with the emerging solar tiger economies with manufacturing bases much closer to home.

For more information on the Ernst & Young global renewable energy country attractiveness indices, please visit:

http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Industry_Utilities_Renewable_energy_country_attractiveness_indices/$file/Industry_Utilities_Renewable_energy_country_attractiveness_indices.pdf