UK Government to face questions and legal action of its handling of the FIT

Ove the last few days reports have been appearing that the UK government are to face a number of challenges to its decision to halve the FIT for PV installations which come online after 12th Dec 2011.

There are two select committees Environmental Audit Committee and Energy and Climate Change Committee which have called for evidence after launching an inquiry into the solar PV Feed-in Tariff and the management of the ongoing consultation to cut the cash subsidy in December. This is reported in a number of websites including http://www.greenwisebusiness.co.uk/news/mps-call-for-evidence-of-ministers-handling-of-feedin-tariff-cuts-2773.aspx

There are also  two legal challenges to the decision to cut the tariff. One, brought by 'Friends of the Earth', is based on the fact that the governement is acting illegally in saying it will halve the tariff before its own consulation on the system is supposed to be completed on the 23rd December 2011. This story is covered by a large number of websites and is best searched for in your favourite search engine..

Seems that yet again some MP's have been caught by not thinking everything through before acting unilaterally.

New reduced FIT rates to arrive 5 months earlier than expected !

It is now in a couple of websites that I have seen that the Feed In Tariff rates will be reduced a lot sooner than originally anticipated.

Most people expected the change to occur in April for the new financial year. However, now the gov't is saying that the pot of money allocated for this scheme is running out quicker than planned.

The scheme was more popular than predicted with domestic installations exploding on the scene as people expected to cash in.

This means that you need to get any new installation signed off by the generating company before the 12th December 2011 to achieve the current rate of 43p/unit generated.

Any installation commissioned after that date (even if you have already paid a deposit with an installer) will drop to just 21p/unit generated.

Of course you will SAVE the same amount of money as you would under the old tariff, but the INCOME will now be less than half of what it was before.

The BBC News website has more on this at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15507750

There may still be other ways in which you can receive payments for using energy efficient or generating systems. Check out the Energy Saving Trusts website which has a database to check out your postcode - http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/

FIT rates to be slashed for new systems after April 2012 ?

I have received an email today from 'TheMoneySavingExpert' website which carries a headline that the guaranteed FIT rates for new systems might be slashed by 50% after April 2012.

If you were considering installing a system soon then I'd get your skates on as you only get the rate after the system has been registered by the generating company.

You'd obviously save money due to not having to pay so much of the large energy prices which are also predicted, but you'd not be able to MAKE money.

The link to the MSE website about this can be found at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels

There was a warning that this might happen from the same MSE website back in Oct 2010 at the following URL - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/utilities/2010/10/spending-review-solar-feed-in-tariffs-safe-for-now

If more concrete evidence comes in it might be too late as the gov't is hardly likely to advertise sooner rather than later I would think.

Reason for the BLOG here.

First of all I hope it provides some useful information about how I'm going with my installation.

This was done so that others could see whether it would be a good thing for them to do or not.

You can read all the paperwork you like but I decided it would be more useful to see the results from an actual PV plant in the real world in a manner that was easy for a total novice to understand.

I don't profess to be a technical wizard or an entertaining read. I will put anything in I feel relevant at the time.

If you would like to comment on anything posted here I will read them. Are there any points that need clarifying? Would you like to know any more? I will try and answer any questions that arise. 

Recent update to numbers

As we start heading towards Autumn I thought I'd update the blog with some recent numbers and information.

Since installation on 19th Oct 2010 I have generated some 1922.67kWh.

So that means for 265 days, so far, the system has output an average of 7.255kWh/day. which is quite a bit different from previous averages.

25th Apr 2011 (1057.3 kWh) gave an average of 5.62kWh/day.
11th Mar 2011 589.7kWh) gave an average of 4.12kWh/day.
29th Jan 2011 (381.72kWh) gave an average of 3.74kWh/day.
2nd Dec 2010 (198kWh) gave an average of 4.71kWh/day.

If this average per day is carried for the whole year we get an annual generation of 2648kWh. This will obviously need to be monitored for the full year to get the exact number but isn't too far off I think.

The numbers shown on my Solar Plant webpage have so far logged a few days of data from Apr - Jun 2011. Due to issues logged previously in this blog I am missing a few days worth of data at the end of April and the beginning of May 2011.

April 2011 -22 days recorded 342.01 kWh generated = 15.54 kWh/day.

May 2011 -28 days recorded 325.60 kWh generated = 11.63 kWh/day.

June 2011 - 30 days recorded 342.54 kWh generated = 11.4 kWh/day.

New webbox now online

I have now managed to get the new webbox to update data to the website.

The link is http://www.sunnyportal.com/Templates/PublicPageOverview.aspx?page=8a8df88c-86da-42f7-9497-65d2257a8432&plant=a90e1031-e03b-4882-96fd-96a1c4209705&splang=en-GB

Hopefully this one will last a little longer than the last one. It has back dated all the way to the 4th May 2011.

I will have to set up the pages again which should be done fairly soon.

New box arrives from SMA

This morning I received an email from SMA about the replacement box they were sending. to me with a tracking number.

When I entered the number into the system it said it couldn't be delivered due to an inaccurate address. After trying to get through to somebody to speak to they said it only had a postcode on it. After talking to them I arranged for the parcel to be redelivered in the morning.

After getting back from the sailing a neighbour came over with a parcel. He had been up to the depot for another reason and when he said he was from the street they asked if he knew me. As he said yes they gave it to him.

The box has now been installed. From initial interaction it would appear that the box is uploading data to the Sunny Portal website. I have gone through the registration process again but haven't received the access email yet to set up the website, so I can't check it out or set it up. Hopefully the email will arrive sometime soon.