Solar panel installations have met Government targets for the last quarter, triggering another decrease to the Feed-in-Tariff rate – meaning a slight reduction to the financial rewards of solar.
The reduction takes the tariff down to 13.39p/kWh for installations smaller than 4kW.
The current rate is £13.88p/kWh. So this reduction amounts to £340 over twenty years excluding index linking, for a 4kW South facing system in Dorset.
Although the reduction isn’t a huge amount, it does mean that to receive the higher rate payments, your panels will need to be installed before April 1st.
However solar PV will still provide a return on investment of between 10-12% per year which is tax free and index linked. Solar PV pays for itself within seven years and the Feed In Tariff is a twenty year contract. Import energy costs double every seven years according to the Energy Savings Trust.
