Why don’t we put solar panels on every home?

[Whyaretheynotdoinganything]

Just as the tile says, I’m wondering why the government or the opposition are not proposing free solar panels for every home as a solution to the energy crisis and energy security?

Surely a cost benefit analysis would show net economic benefit, whereas subsidising household energy bills is expensive with little return for the economy.

One barrier would be the workforce, but we’ve managed mass construction projects in the past eg. post war council house building programme.

We need a radical solution fast, it would at least give us hope even if the returns are not immediate.

Those who don’t want panels can pay market rates. Apparently panels pay for themselves in 7 years. I’d happily contribute a proportion but don’t have the savings to cover it all.

We were told we would need a new roof to support them (old house) but why aren’t new houses being built with them and ground source heating?

Yep. No idea why we’re not doing this. Especially new builds. Surely just make a law that new builds have to have solar panels (I know it’s not that easy)

We looked into the cost of them and it would take 20 years to get the cost of them back. I don't know if we will even be in this house in 20 years time, plus it doesn't solve our now bill crisis.

Our friend had them done 18 months ago and we’re told it is now 7 years to get a return. They expect that has now halved due to cost of energy. So the returns are fast now.

I know it will be expensive, but the alternatives are also expensive and not sustainable.

I suspect manufacturing and labour will be the barriers. We’d have to build factories and train up huge numbers of people (let’s be honest, we would need immigration to make it possible).

All houses built in Scotland in about the last 10 years have got some form of renewable energy.

The returns are much quicker plus less 5% after the budget. And yes you might move but it'll also help shift a house you're selling!

My sister had them in April, she was told 13 years to repay. They can't use all the power, even with a battery, and have to sell it back at 4p a kw.

If all houses had solar panels they'd also all need batteries (or some other means to store the energy ... which doesn't really exist on a domestic scale afaik). You couldn't just have everyone dumping all their excess energy into the national grid when it's sunny and then get it back out when they need it in the evening.

Yes, often wondered this. Also have pondered it for years when holidaying in very hot Mediterranean countries - all those houses that need their shutters more or less permanently closed for 5 months of the year and hardly a solar panel to be seen.

Wind turbines on the roof as well and heat pumps instead of gas central heating and double glazing and insulation.

Would make more sense than borrowing money to handing out cash to households so we can pay more money for gas.

Might be a stupid question but can we not store the energy generated?

We can invent amazing things, but haven’t been incentivised enough to bring forward renewable energy solutions at scale, at the household level.

Hopefully an expert will be along soon to put me right, because I’m assuming it’s just not feasible, otherwise we’d be working towards it, surely?

Of course a few people live in listed, special homes you wouldn’t want to spoil with panels, but most homeowners would surely welcome it?

Solar panels themselves aren't the most sustainable options. If the govt ever hit their 300,000 homes and year target and every one of those homes had solar panels imagine the environmental impact of producing and eventually replacing all those panels.

Best practice is to look at more passive design to make homes more energy efficient. Building the houses themselves in materials that insulate well to reduce the need for heating in the winter but also design of homes for things like passive cooling - orientation of buildings which allows air flow around buildings and using planting, materials and colours which prevent urban areas holding onto so much heat and creating urban heat islands. In very hot climates homes manage to stay very cool without the use of things like AC units and equally in cold climates houses are incredibly efficient at keeping warm.

It's far better to use these "fabric first" design elements than rely on things like PV panels with huge cost and environmental impacts themselves.

Quite a lot have solar water heating though.

There's talk now of using EV vehicles as extensions of the National Grid - to store energy which can be passed back to the grid when not needed. This could go some way to solving the issue of how to store solar / wind energy until it's needed

Supply is short at the moment and our infrastructure is not good enough. It’s problematic for the grid to have too much self generated electricity being fed into it. As such, retrofitting on older more remote properties can be a problem and is often capped at 3.68kw.

Most new properties though shouldn’t have the infrastructure issues.

@GermanFrench22 this is what I don’t get. Everyone knows the price is going to stay up now. Households simply cannot afford it, so the government will need to subsidise which brings little economic return (it frees up disposable income for some households beyond the essentials, but many will choose to save if they can).

Investing in the green economy will bring economic returns. So why aren’t we doing it?

Because house building is designed to make a profit, even with section 106 agreements. Sustainability and green energy initiatives are always the first thing to be sacrificed in the altar of the developers' profit margins.

Thanks @Lemonblossom
So we need to be legislating for renewables on all new Homes like Scotland. But the big housebuilders won’t like that, so will lobby the Tories against it.

Possibly demand will come from purchasers of new homes. If developers see lots of sudden interest in new build eco estates (there’s one I know of near to me)

Might be a stupid question but can we not store the energy generated?

I'm sure there are people working on it - not sure there are many good alternatives to batteries though. Improving those is definitely being worked on for cars, but you're up against the laws of physics and chemistry.

The battery technology is improving leases and bounds, there’s also some places where there are local batteries so the households contribute and then use the stored power without reliance on a larger network

we are using the energy as it’s produced so running dishwasher, washing machine heat or aircon in daylight which means they are at 0 from the grid. The pay back to the grid is not great, but some relief, but it’s these other savings that have added up

In theory yes I’m in favour, but in reality you need a south facing roof for the best return and ideally need to be in the southern half of the UK but there is no reason local councils couldn’t make it a condition of planning in situations where it would make sense

id also like to see bee hotel bricks and bird boxes on all new builds too (idealist!).

That’s encouraging about the batteries. Are there cheaper options for homeowners to DIY that would charge essential such as phone and laptop?

It’s a shame that the people who can afford to buy solar panels, are probably not those who are at risk of becoming destitute from rising energy prices. It makes economic sense but you need to have savings or the capacity to service a big loan to pay for it. Not to mention that many people live in private rented where there is no incentive for the landlord to invest, as they generally don’t pay bills.

I thought this was an interesting idea for energy storage:

www.google.com/amp/s/singularityhub.com/2021/09/01/better-than-batteries-a-startup-thats-storing-energy-in-concrete-blocks-just-raised-100-million/%3famp=1

There are storage options,
Tesla Powerwall, for example.