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.

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.

Yes there is - within a few years (I think by 2025?) all rented property has to be upgraded to a minimum of a C energy rating, else the landlord will incur a fine (I think £5k per property). This isn't trivial to do on most existing properties.
DH inherited a property from his parents, he's started figuring out what he will need to that to get it up to spec. And DD has just moved to a rented house which has solar panels.

If your roof is north facing then no good....wont generate anything so that rules out a lot of houses....spain used to have a very high solar panel tax in some regions....my british friend in catalunya had a business....went bust as cheaper to just pay the bills.....its now changed tho....we saw panels in skips sometimes....but here they could be fitted where possible and onto fences as well....we get sun all day so getting panels next year...roof and all over....!!

@ErrolTheDragon great news about private rented sector

This is the local batteries that are happening www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/news/2022/06/03/yarra-launches-victorias-first-inner-urban-community-battery deliberately in areas to support those that wouldn’t necessarily be able to invest/gain from solar normally.

I've seen some interesting stuff on using heat/ water as power storage.

Also using fields as mixed solar and farming due to water condensation and shade improving crops livestock

just watched the German news where they were discussing the fact that barges were getting Stuck because of the drought but they are carrying the very things that are causing the climate problems

@earsup we have a north facing garden- can’t we just put them on the front side of the roof? I don’t care about aesthetics, my house is ugly anyway!

Solar is a very limited source of renewable energy for the U.K. The resource and energy and carbon emissions needed to make and install the panels would not be covered by energy generated unless the house is totally clear of shading by trees, can take the extra load of the panels and is in the correct orientation. Battery storage is an emerging technology but again making these takes resources and produces carbon emissions themselves. What we need is better education for homeowners about what is suitable for their particular home, be that improved insulation or on site renewable energy generation and if so what type. Really what we need is big government incentives to decarbonise energy generation in the U.K. quickly, it’s not down to individual homeowners to fix this mess. Commercial and public sectors need to lead on this.

It's bonkers that all newbuilds don't have to have them. Currently looking t o buy, and it's amazing that I am seeing some new builds with oil or lpg heating. Yes they will be insulated to modern standards, that at least is mandatory, but still seems wrong.

If you have a directly south facing pitched roof that’s easy to access for installation then solar would be a good option for you.

the company will do survey and advise you....enquire and see what they say.....

The building regulations have changed again and current regulations don’t allow new homes with combustion fuels to be designed in the U.K. Although the homes you’re looking at are “new”, they would have been designed some time ago.

Sure - I just looked up the cost, appears to be £9750 inc VAT.
(Part of their pitch is to use them as a big UPS, which I guess makes them popular in parts of the US which are prone to outages, quite apart from using them in conjunction with solar)

That’s encouraging - our pitch roof is directly south facing.

Roughly how much are we looking at paying for standard, 3 bed Ex council semi with simple pitched roof? And do companies offer interest free finance?

We use very little gas (house very well insulated) and comparatively a lot of electricity.

dh just had some installed on our home two months ago, maybe less. the roof is new (8 yrs old). it's a small system, 12 panels. we've produced 24.5 kWh today and 2,613 since it's been installed. we're not in the uk, received a small government grant but it will be 7+ years till we reach the break even point at this rate, we had the cash to invest and it certainly offset our usual bill (was previously $125 every two months, and last two month bill was $1.28). interestingly we had ours installed after our neighbor and since then spotted several households in our neighborhood with new solar systems. we did not go with a system that required batteries to store excess energy and yes the hydro company does buy back excess at a low rate.

(Located in south of England)

Re storing energy- read an article recently about a European country ( Switzerland maybe) which has just finished an enormous ‘water battery’. They pump water to a higher reservoir in times of surplus and when more electricity is needed let it fall via hydroelectric turbines. A beautiful solution in the right place.

Our house is 400 years old and with a listed roof (special type) so it would never be allowed. But why new builds don't have them as standard, I'm not sure. Less tax for the government , that's probably why!

The policy you're thinking of dates back to 2015, but it's not all new builds. Four in five new builds have solar fitted.

At least there’s now a huge incentive for venture capitalists to pump money into companies which are developing batteries and other effective alternative energy solutions. Demand has say-rocketed and at last, we could be heading towards a global climate change solution.

We gotta have faith!

*Demand has skyrocketed

My house apparently faces the wrong way to really benefit from solar panels! I think it would make more sense to up the insulation levels for every new build home/office/factory / whatever new build in the country. Some new build homes have disgraceful levels of insulation, we should be demanding that developers put the effort into good construction.

My neighbour has them but we can't - the trees and the pitch of our roof mean it won't work. We've asked for a few assessments.

I am seriously looking at geothermal.

You'd think so wouldn't you.

I noticed a lot of the new builds near me have them including social housing, which is good. BUT, they don't put any wire up around them to stop the birds going in and using it as a shag pad and ruining them over the years.

This one?

https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/switzerlands-new-energy-asset-hydro-plant-with-capacity-charge-400000-car-2022-08-05/

That's pretty big, somewhat more than twice the capacity of 'Electric Mountain'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DinorwigPowerr_Station

That's exactly what happens in Spain. Most people who have solar panels don't have batteries because the cost is prohibitive. The panels produce more than is needed at certain times of the day, this is sold back to the grid and then use the grid at night time only.
Yes I realise their are more solar hours in Spain.

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

Its a good question, but storing electricity generated by solar panels is a stupid idea. Solar panels used work that way btw, but it was quickly realised that you need tons of space at the home to house the batteries, they require maintenance, and they’re also terrible environmentally when it comes to end of life disposal.

The more green way (and is the way we have now) is that excess energy is sold to the energy company servicing the home and then sold on to other customers on the grid. Keep in mind the electrical grid is international through undersea interconnection. So energy generated here would first go to other U.K. consumers, and if excess beyond that to mainland Europe, usually France. We currently buy most of our electricity from France and the Netherlands. We would switch to exporting instead of importing.