FREE solar panels (UK only)

For those of you who are currently residing in the UK, I bet you could do with up to 17 hours of free electric a day?

Well, you can get that if you've got a south facing roof on your house with about 24 square meters of space available...and free solar panels.

Yes, FREE solar panels... and they come and fit them too apparently.

I have just applied and must wait up to 10 days to get a reply from them, but under a new government scheme, this company is supplying and fitting solar panels for free..

FREE solar panels

All you do is enter your postcode, find your house and then right click it so you drop a pin on it and then hit the submit button. Enter a few details and wait for a reply..

Simples..

This sounds awesome, but the contract is a bit weird.
It may be better to get a loan, and install your own panels and storage system and keep ALL of the electricity produced.

reply to post by Extralien


I wonder how the system was established. Was it subsidized with cost offsets in other areas to make it free, or is it a directly funded system by the government?

Either way it sounds great. The UK is shooting into the future, they now have Universal Broadband Connection and now free solar panels. Right now it is dragging on the debt, but soon within this decade these payments will pay off and the British economy will be a hub for 21st economic growth.

It will also reduce the need for UK to import oil and will save you enough money to give you around $500 extra dollars a year.

Every home in britain should be insulated properly, with a small wind turbine and solar panels on the roof, it should be standard for any new housing.

dbl pst

[edit on 10-6-2010 by woodwardjnr]

Do you even get sunlight in Britain ,every British Tv show i have seen its always looks cold and overcast,please enlighten me if i am wrong but i would go for wind power as well if anyone is thinking of going off the grid.

I find this interesting. I wish the USA would do this.

In the USA if you can produce more energy than your electric company brings to your house, by law the electric company has to buy back the extra electricity back from you.

What a sweet deal.

here is some info on this:

ezinearticles.com...

Hey, if everybody did this, we could put the electric companies out of business :-)

[edit on 10-6-2010 by JohnPhoenix]

Originally posted by 12voltz
Do you even get sunlight in Britain ,every British Tv show i have seen its always looks cold and overcast,please enlighten me if i am wrong but i would go for wind power as well if anyone is thinking of going off the grid.

we get a couple of weeks a year of sunshine, but as i look at my window its pretty grey, but windy, so my wind turbine idea would probably work.

I'm sure if we had better weather in this country it would be a far happier place to live. Nevermind

reply to post by 12voltz


Yes we do get some sunshine. Don't believe every story you hear about this country (although ti sometimes feels like they are right)

Getting wind power along with the panels would be a great help.. We can buy them ourselves of course and would greatly help.

Electricty you produce yourself can be sold back to the national grid. You can get paid for helping to supply power.

I read someplace recently that the 20 % of the UK's power needs comes from wind power.

That is awesome and I applaud the UK. They may be corrupt and just as bad as the USA Government wise, but at least they are doing these things and the USA is not... not on that scale.. sure we have a few wind farms but nothing near 20 %.

Originally posted by Misoir
reply to post by Extralien

 

I wonder how the system was established. Was it subsidized with cost offsets in other areas to make it free, or is it a directly funded system by the government?

Due to a Government initiated scheme that commenced on 1st April this year, called the FIT Scheme, we will be paid for all the electricity our panels generate, whether it is used or not – this is called a Generation Tariff. This income is guaranteed for 25 years and will eventually cover the cost of the panels and provide us with a profit. Accordingly, we are able to fit free solar panels onto any roof that is suitable and let the homeowner use all the electricity that is generated entirely free of charge.

www.ashadegreener.co.uk...

Hope that answers your question.

reply to post by Extralien


In Australia there was /is rebates for solar power but only if you are connected to the grid which to me was not an option without spending big dollars.i chose to buy my own panels ,batteries ,charge controllers and backed them up with wind turbines.It can cost a lot or a little depending on what you want to power.There are a lot of appliances now that are energy efficient and run direct current ,eliminating the need for inverters..The Danes are on the right track check out their green nirvana.
www.sbs.com.au...

reply to post by 12voltz

Do you even get sunlight in Britain ,every British Tv show i have seen its always looks cold and overcast,please enlighten me if i am wrong but i would go for wind power as well if anyone is thinking of going off the grid.

Does this answer your question?



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I’ve wanted to fit Solar panels myself but its far to expensive... ill definitely check out the link... thanks OP

[edit on 10-6-2010 by Muckster]

so what is the catch, is there any charges at all for this ?

Originally posted by weemadmental
so what is the catch, is there any charges at all for this ?

Nope, none, nada, zero, zilch...absolutely nothing at all...

But will we have to pay something at SOME point?

NO, absolutely not. Our Agreement with the homeowner spells this out very clearly in a term headed “STATEMENT OF ‘NO COSTS TO HOMEOWNER’ POLICY”. Under this term we re-confirm that at no time throughout the term of the Agreement will the homeowner be asked to pay anything or will be liable for anything. We pay for everything – the panels and all other equipment, the installation (including scaffolding costs) and the maintenance and we will allow the homeowner to use ALL the electricity that our panels generate – FREE OF CHARGE because we will get paid for the amount of electricity generated WHETHER THE HOME OWNER USES IT OR NOT.

www.ashadegreener.co.uk...

reply to post by Extralien


Thanks for this heads up. I am looking into it now and there is lots of info and discusion at this site with a member of "shadesofgreen" answering questions. (starts half way down page8 of Free solar power system. Is it a scam? thread)
forums.moneysavingexpert.com...

The thing that bothers me is they ask you to sign a 25 year lease renting your loft space to them. What problems this would make if you wanted to sell your house ,to me are still unclear. As far as I can gather the new owner would have to take on the agreement which is fine unless the new owner wants to alter the building and then that south facing roof where the solar panels are would mean that a loft conversion with a large dormer window might become problematic considering the legalities of the loft lease.





[edit on 10-6-2010 by tarifa37]

Thanks for letting us know! s & f

Thanks for the tip-off. I've applied. I'll let you know what happens.

hi all

i applied for these free solar panels and they replied with the following email a few days later, here it is:


From: Anita Hudson ([email protected])
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: 15 June 2010 16:26:10
To: [email protected]
1 attachment
image001.jpg (7.4 KB)










Thank you for your application for the use of free solar panels from A Shade Greener. Our surveyors have now looked at your roof on Google Earth and unfortunately they don’t think that it would suit any of our standard systems at the moment. This does not mean that there is anything wrong with your roof, neither does it mean that Solar PV would not work on your roof, neither does it mean that your roof is too small, it simply means that we cannot fit one of our standard systems. If we were selling Solar PV it wouldn't be an issue - we would be able to customise our systems and sell to anyone who would buy, but instead we are deriving our income from the electricity that our panels generate. Accordingly, our system has to be a certain size and must generate a minimum yield that will make them financially viable for us.



There are a number of issues that could have had an impact on their decision, which is never taken lightly - your roof could either be too far a degree east or west from south (we will not fit if the azimuth is outside the range of +30 or -30 degree off due South), it could be that the roof is split level, has dormer or velux windows that interrupt the space, does not have enough available space for our standard arrays (and we stated above we do not do 'customised' installations), the dimensions of your roof could be unsuitable for our system (for example we could not fit on a roof that is 15m x 2.9m, but we could fit on a roof that is 4.97m x 4.74m), or there could be shading issues from trees or other structures. We are sorry that we cannot provide a personalised email, unfortunately there are so many applications we have to turn down each day we simply haven't the manpower to write a personal email to each applicant.



Once again, we are very sorry, but as we will be deriving our income from the electricity that these panels generate we need to ensure that they do operate at optimum levels and many of the factors we have mentioned above could severely reduce the efficacy of the panels. However, if we source different types of panels your roof may become suitable in the future, and accordingly we would like to retain your details so that we can contact you if things do change. None of your details will be supplied to a third party. If you don’t want us to retain your details please let us know.



In the meantime please remember to tell your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues to check their roofs on our website www.ashadegreener.co.uk as soon as possible so that they don’t miss out. Also, if you're still interested in other forms of renewable energy for your property you can contact The Energy Saving Trust, which is a Government backed, free, impartial and expert advice service with local advisors who can;

- answer your questions on which technology may be suitable for your home,

- tell you how to access grants, and,

- put you in touch with local installers.



You can call them free on 0800 512012 to find out more.





Kind Regards

The A Shade Greener Team


so it's a no-go for me i'm afraid

if you're well-off enough to afford a huge house then you can have free solar panels.
if you're not so well-off and you've got a small house .... ya gotta pay for em.
just thought i'd update this thread and to post the reply i had.
dooby

reply to post by doobydoll


Well that really sucks,looks like you need to buy a bigger house first, or why not move to Australia it's not bad here .Try stealing a loaf of bread and they might send you for free!