One of Britain’s leading energy companies, E.ON, has this week launched its SolarSaver scheme, which is designed to give “complete peace of mind to customers looking to save on their energy bills and reduce their impact on the environment” according to E.ON’s website.
Although the use of renewable energy devices such as wind turbines and solar panels in domestic installations has attracted criticism from those who argue they offer little return on investment for consumers, the SolarSaver scheme aims to enable homeowners to break even on their initial solar panel investment within 12 years.
As the SolarSaver scheme ties in with the UK Government’s 25-year-long Feed-in-Tariff, which was implemented only recently to fix the price of domestic green energy production sold back to the National Grid, the 12-year break even point would theoretically allow homeowners to reap the benefits of 13 years of profit. Total savings for customers participating in E.ON’s SolarSaver scheme are expected to be in the region of £24,000 over the 25-year term, which represents excellent value for money for homeowners who can also do their bit to reduce global warming.
E.ON’s Phil Gilbert said: “We’ve all got a role to play in bringing down our carbon footprint and we’re helping our customers do that. With the long term benefit provided by the new Feed-in-Tariff they’ll even make money back. This will be the first of many exciting new propositions we’ll have for our customers, giving them the power to produce their own heat and electricity from lower carbon sources”.
Mr Gilbert continued: “SolarSaver will give customers the level of service you’d expect from one of the UK’s leading energy companies; from initial consultation to survey and installation – assessing homes for suitability, helping with planning applications and identifying grants or funding to which customers may be entitled”. Solar panels comprise photovoltaic cells or Solar PV panels that convert the sun’s light into solar electricity, which can then be used to power homes or it can be sold to the National Grid for profit. A typical 2.1kW system would cost a homeowner more than £11,000 and could generate approximately 1,600kWh electricity every year.
I have a south facing roof. also existing E-ON customer.
Would like a quote on fitting solar panels plus information on Solarsaver scheme
apparently an average 3 bedroom house does not have enough square metres to accommodate this!!!
I’d be VERY weary of this!
a) Are you then tied in to Eon for 25 years?
b) Who exactly owns your roof! If you try and sell your home, legally the new owners will NOT be allowed to remove the panels (for 25 years in total). Whilst panels are a good idea, if I was buying a house, I wouldn’t like the fact I couldn’t do what I wanted with my roof!
c) The system does not store energy! That means in winter, when you get home from work, they wont work and you wont of course be able to utilise any stored energy from earlier in the day (Eon get all this energy!) Hence, these panels will only save you money when you’re in your home on a sunny day using electricity. Not storing your electricity is not a good thing!
d) They look ugly! Eon aren’t using attractive panels – they’re a bit of an eyesore and your roof will be covered in them!
e) If you’re not a BIG user of electricity in the home (i.e. a single person or a couple) …. is all the above worth it to save what I estimate to be about £10 a month?