Woke up this morning to another anti-renewable article in the Daily Mail. According to the Mail, energy experts have ‘admitted’ they over-estimated the energy savings households could make with solar panels.  

The Energy Savings Trust was asked to estimate an average saving for an average home using solar panels – almost impossible given the huge variations in individual circumstances. The only fact that can be stated with certainty is that every case is different. The EST reduced their first estimate from 50% to 25% - which makes an overall difference, on average, of £70.

The Mail says “This is because solar panels work only during the day, when most people are out.” That may well be true – but we know from talking to our own generators, that when people put solar pv on their roof, the way they use electricity changes. As one person told us “I check the weather forecast before I leave for work, and set timers on my bread-maker and washing machine to come on when I think it’s going to be sunniest.” It really is true that when you understand where your energy comes from, you value it more and use it less. And improvements in technology will mean that ‘Smart’ usage like this becomes increasingly common.

Now, back to that £70 figure. The article all but ignores that the main financial incentive for installing solar PV comes not from savings in energy, but from the Feed-in Tariff – which, according to the Mail’s numbers, will pay a return of about £800 a year. More than 10 times the benefit from the energy saved. This makes the first sentence of the article: “Solar panels that cost up to £16,000 will knock just £70 a year off household bills” extremely misleading.

And then there are the non-financial incentives – such as cutting carbon and reducing our reliance on energy imported from abroad.

Looking beyond the slightly hysterical rhetoric, there’s actually some sensible advice in the article which Good Energy fully concurs with – for example how much energy can be produced will depend on your home’s location and the weather. And how much you will save depends whether you are at home or not during the day. Without wishing to insult the readers of the Daily Mail, we’d say that if you are thinking of investing several thousand pounds in solar pv, you’re probably already aware of this.

And it’s certainly true that since the Feed-in Tariff was launched a huge number of new solar PV installers have entered the market, some of whom may well be making misleading claims. This is why Good Energy will only recommend firms certified by the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, that we’ve worked with and know to be reliable. It’s also why you should always get at least three different quotes.

To find out more, visit http://www.goodenergy.co.uk/generate