Energy bills savings: Save £600 with solar panels and batteries | Personal Finance | Finance
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The average cost to install solar panels on the roof of a UK home has decreased by 60 percent since 2010. The green energy source can provide half of the daily electricity needs for a home, saving a household between £500 and £600 a year, according to figures from SolarEnergy UK.
Otovo is a solar panel and battery installation group that has just launched in the UK.
Demand for its services has tripled since September last year, when gas and electricity prices began to rapidly rise.
Otovo’s chief executive, Andreas Thorsheim, spoke to Express.co.uk about the benefits of solar panels and batteries.
The batteries take direct current from the panels and store them as alternative current, to be used by the home instead of paying for energy from the grid.
A battery can store five to 10kwh and can cover up to two thirds of the electricity needs of a home.
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Mr Thorsheim said the technology has hugely improved over the past few years.
He said: “The last few years there’s been a tremendous development in the power output per square foot.
“That feeds into the price. That’s a main driver in solar panels now costing less than 10 percent of what they did five years ago.
“Hopefully now that the after effects of coronavirus are subsiding, we can see a return to deflation in the equipment prices.”
The batteries can charge and discharge several times a day, providing energy to the household during peak hours when it would be most expensive to buy from the grid.
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Installing the solar panels and batteries typically costs £5,500 to £6,000, with payback period of between five and 10 years.
Consumers sometimes pay for the solar kit out of their savings, but Mr Thorsheim said banks may be willing to loan the money as well.
He said: “Banks are typically positive to this type of loan, because it’s a loan that is used to reduce your monthly bills.
“It makes the consumer better off. Banks tend to be quite willing, across Europe, to lend people money to do home energy efficiency improvements.”
Otovo is also developing a programme to allow UK consumers to lease the solar technology.
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“I used to live in London in a very draughty flat. Homes in the UK are famously poorly insulated.”
The Government has announced that there will be no VAT on solar panels installations for the next five years.
Dr Steve Buckley, head of data science for energy saving app Loop, said: “Solar power was already a great option for households looking to reduce their carbon emissions. A typical installation cuts emissions from energy use by about 1.6 tonnes per year.
“Right now, solar is looking like an even more attractive option – with current energy prices, the payback period is shorter. With each price cap increase, the payback period on a typical install is reduced by around 30 percent.
“Homes with solar panels installed use fewer units of electricity from the grid so are protected from the full impact of the price rises, with electricity bills approximately half those of a non-solar household.
“Adding a home battery improves this protection still further, with electricity bills only around one-third of non-solar households.”
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