The BBC website yesterday released a business article showing that all is not doom and gloom in the financial world. Certainly, while we are told that Britain is set to reel under the dramatic public sector spending review of the coming months, farming at least has the potential to benefit financially from the government’s solar feed-in tariff scheme.

Solarfeedintariff.co.uk has been a keen exponent of the tariff system both home and abroad for the last three years as a way of making solar projects viable, profitable and of course, a long term alternative to other unprotected investments. Now, as the BBC has reported, it is now the turn of forward thinking farm owners to cash in on the tariff scheme which pays small scale producers of solar photovoltaic energy a fixed, premium rate both for the energy they use and feed back into the national grid.

On a BBC website laden with news of the scrapping of the Ark Royal, cutting the Housing budget and the Spending Review, it is good news for a young and growing UK photovoltaic industry that high profile media outlets are now regularly running with solar feed-in tariff case studies. Never one to shy away from the media, Glastonbury festival entrepreneur Michael Eavis plays a prominent role throughout the article, highlighting the very simple financial rewards involved in investing in solar. Indeed, in an industry often reluctant to change Eavis provides perhaps the best example of how farmers can increase profits through investing in new areas, in his case, Rock Festivals and Solar panels.

With a number of solar pv companies now vying to tap into the burgeoning solar market on British farms, landowners will have no shortage in sourcing panels in order to start tapping in to the tariff scheme. The BBC article, rich with quotes from suppliers stressing difficulty in keeping up with demand at the moment, highlights that, once the revenue generation model of solar pv becomes better understood and widely accepted, then the potential for long term profits in UK rural solar projects will continue to go from strength to strength.

For more information on how you could benefit from the solar feed-in tariff, please contact: elliot@solarfeedintariff.co.uk

Solarbuzz, the market research group which focuses on solar photovoltaic (pv) has released its UK pv market 2010 report and highlights strong growth potential for the year ahead. Indicating the link between the market and the feed-in tariff legislation, Solarbuzz predict that 2011 will see a surge in solar pv installation as investors look to tap into the government’s tariff scheme.

With a focus on such factors as market segmentation, market size and tariff rates the report has highlighted the continuing growth of the infant solar pv market in the UK. Alan Turner of Solarbuzz said,

“The early entrance of big name brands are helping to lend public confidence to what is generally a poorly understood renewable energy source in the UK,”

The Solarbuzz market report has highlighted the following trends for solar pv:

• The south east accounts for 45 per cent of residential solar pv installations in the US
• 2011 solar pv figures will be hugely impacted by emerging agricultural and industrial projects
• Big name brands entering the solar pv market will easily meet the growing demand for solar installations