solar panals and grants?

[girlscout]

In our area a company called a shade greener( i understand there are other companies that do this) are putting up solar panals for free on peoples roof.
The deal is you get reduced electric bills and they get the government grant that goes with it.
You are obliged to have a 25 year contract with them, so if you sell the house the new owner has to keep them on for the remaining period.
We are very pro solar power and I,ve checked this out with official sources who say its the coming thing.
My question is ,would you think twice and hold out for any less restictive deals (or wait for as windfall and put them in ourselves so we can claim the fit grant-dont have money for this), or grab it with both hands.?

Dh very keen, i'm in two minds.

Anyone?

My DH has a business in this sector www.hatchsustain.co.uk. He says free solar panels are offered to people by investors who see a great investment return from the Feed In Tariff (Fit). If you can't afford to pay for the solar panels yourself or borrow the money to pay for them it is an option but be careful. You have to sign over access to your roof for 25 years, and would a prospective buyer like that restriction?

I had read/heard that it may be possible to get a 'green loan' in the fairly near future... you will be able to borrow money to cover the cost of installation and repay the loan with the feed in tarrif payments - I think this would be a better way to do it.

I'd love to install PV's but I cannot afford to at present, having looked into these 'free install' deals I think I'd rather wait until I can afford it myself (either with a loan or windfall) as I have a few reservations about these deals regarding, maintenance, access rights, saleability of your property etc. The technology involved is improving and becoming cheaper all the time so I recon give it a couple of years and it'll be more affordable... maybe...

while "PV for free" as it's becoming known as sounds an attractive option, the latest edition of Which? crunched the numbers and concluded that you would be much better off financing it yourself, you should be able to get a loan easily enough as the repayments would be covered by the Feed-in tariff. An ordinary bank loan would do it, you don't need a special green one.

But also be aware that the feed-in tariff is considered to be at risk in the comprehensive spending review.