Making Money with Solar Panel Installation

Solar panels are being hailed as the future and are helping governments across the world tackle the issue of climate change. There are numerous environmental benefits to having solar panels installed at your home of business, the biggest being the reduced need for fossil fuel produced energy. Solar panels are also able to significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide output of a building and help to ease the pressure on the earth’s atmosphere. Reducing the reliance of fossil fuels with solar panels can also provide with substantial savings in terms of how much you spend on energy bills with savings per year of £70-£200 easily achievable.

The environmental and saving benefits of solar energy are well known; what many people don’t know is that they are also presented with an excellent way of making money with solar panel installation.

Making money with solar PV systems

Making money with solar panel installation is best done with a solar PV system; this is the kind of solar panel that generates electricity.

Solar PV is also known as solar photovoltaic and is the most widely used type of solar panel system. Photovoltaic technology works though small solar cells releasing electrons upon contact with sunlight. The electrons move within each cell and create an electric current; cells are combined over large areas to provide a large amount of electricity. As long as the cells receive sunlight they are able to produce electricity.

The chance to make money through the production of electricity is from a scheme called the feed-in tariff (FIT). The FIT was introduced into the United Kingdom in 2010 after being successfully used in Germany since 1997, the way in which it works is to allow anyone with solar PV panels to sell any unused electricity to the national grid where it can be recycled and re-used by others.

The FIT is set-up to last 25 years and a rate is in place of 43.3p p/kWh of solar energy produced; this rate will remain for the full term and can earn people around £1030 each year for 25 years.

Making money with solar panel installation is made all the more appealing when you consider that the price of a system is likely to be in the region of £8000-£14000, meaning you are able to make up to double what the panels cost.

The scheme is designed to entice people to change to a greener lifestyle by installing solar panels and to act now to ensure they receive the maximum benefits from their solar panels.

Renewable Heat Incentive

Solar thermal panels are also available in the UK but at the moment there is now way of making money with solar panel installation of this kind, this is set to change in late 2012 with the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RIH). This is designed to act in much the same way as the FIT and reward people with thermal systems by giving them the chance to sell any used energy.