In our bid to bring more transparency and understanding to the world of microgeneration (solar panels, small turbines etc) we will be publishing a series of case studies from Good Energy customers. To kick off (and celebrate our new solar pv addition to the Good Energy Shop) here's a review of our SunDog solar panels by Julian Orton:

"It's now one year since we had our solar PV system fitted by Sundog Energy. With an installed capacity of 2.916 kWp on a south-east facing roof, we were given a rather conservative prediction of an annual yield of 1861 kWh.  However, it's surpassed all our expectations with an actual total generation figure of 2672 kWh.  This easily exceeds the average quoted UK yield of 830kWh per kWp of installed capacity.

On the energy efficiency side we reduced our total consumption by 13.4% from 4143 to 3589 units.  This was achieved by switching to energy saving light bulbs, the use of energy saving mains connectors for computer and AV equipment, the replacement of two household appliances with more energy efficient versions and the use of a ‘smart meter' energy saving monitor. Some of these changes are ‘in year' and should produce further falls in consumption next year.

The total reduction in use of grid electricity was from 4143 to 917 kWh or a 78% reduction.  If you include the fact that our electricity supplier is Good Energy who supply 100% of their customers' electricity from renewable sources then it's a 100% reduction.  Using Energy Savings Trust figure of  0.568kg CO2 per kWh, the displaced grid electricity gives a CO2 saving of 1518kg for the year.  I realise this isn't an immediate gain when you include the carbon payback time of 4-5 years in the UK for the energy used to manufacture the solar PV panels.  But when you consider that the manufacturer (Sharp in this case) guarantees the output to 80% of the original at 25 years and some of the first PV panels fitted in Japan 40 years ago (also Sharp) are still functioning, then the overall carbon life-cycle is massively in favour of solar PV electricity."

by Julian Orton for Green Energy Republic