Green Energy Republic

Update: Transition Town Marlow 100 Solar project

 

 
 
By Dave Hampton – the carbon coach

The Transition Town Marlow 100 Solar project is, essentially, a buyers’ club.  In late 2009, three members of TTM were looking to install PV and solar thermal panels for their own homes.  Philip Ditchfield and Willi Moore took the lead in researching the market, with the idea of forming a buying club. We wanted to find one high quality and ethical supplier, to share any advantage from doing several installations in the same place, at the same time. 

After much investigation we chose Freesource, not least because they are Good Energy’s chosen home generation partner.  Philip negotiated an excellent framework agreement: participants get a rebate cheque for a percentage of the total installation cost, with the percentage rising as more Marlow homes join the scheme by certain fixed dates.

We've some way to go to get 100 installations, but have already triggered a healthy discount step of 12%, bringing the price of a £10k solar PV installation down to £8,800 for anyone looking to install now.

Equally importantly, the Marlow scheme has attracted lots of publicity, and may have acted as a catalyst for many other transition towns across the UK to start their own buyers’ clubs.

Sometimes, what is needed to ‘press the go button’ is simply a line in the ground – a ‘decision time’.  One of these is coming up fast now, a March deadline after which the 12% Marlow rebate cannot be guaranteed.  People within a seven-mile radius of Marlow are welcome to join us, and will get the same rebate as if they had joined on day one.  No one in Marlow is making a penny from this project, but we are all very glad to have done it.

Visit the Renewable Energy Marketplace in Exeter

 

 

Interested in earning money from solar PV, but keen to find out more first? Renewable energy experts Regen SW are hosting a special event, The Renewable Energy marketplace, on 22 March 2011 at Westpoint, near Exeter. Sponsored by Good Energy, the show will give you the chance to hear from renewables professionals and meet different installers. As well as solar PV and solar thermal, it will cover all types of renewable technology including biomass, heat pumps, hydro and wind. Centred around a large exhibition, there will be opportunities to attend a series of workshops covering the different technologies and their benefits, details of the government incentives and remaining grant opportunities, and further insight for those already pushing ahead with projects. To book tickets, click here.

Investing in solar funds

 

 
Another way of helping grow the UK’s renewable energy capacity is by investing directly in a fund which invests in solar projects. A fund that makes use of FITs can generate fairly predictable cash flows over 20 to 25 years.

One way for UK-based individuals to invest in solar assets is through a Venture Capital Trust (VCT), a listed investment vehicle designed to offer investors an income tax rebate of 30% of the value of their investment, as well as tax free dividends and capital gains tax relief on disposal of shares. There are several such products currently available in the market, one of which, Ingenious Solar UK VCT, is purely UK-focused. You can find more information about this product at http://www.ingeniousvcts.co.uk/

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute any form of advice, recommendation or arrangement by Good Energy and is not intended to be relied upon by you in making any specific investment or other decisions. Appropriate advice should be obtained before making any such decision.

Solar on a social scale

 

 
Countering a popular fallacy that solar PV is the preserve of the affluent middle classes is Peabody, one of London’s oldest and largest housing associations. It’s been generating renewable electricity since 2006, with over 200MW peak of solar PV arrays spread across four of its properties. Some of the electricity generated is used in the buildings’ communal areas while the rest is exported to supply Good Energy customers with 100% renewable, independently certified green electricity.

With social housing making up around a fifth of UK homes, it is vital that housing associations are at the frontline of improving energy efficiency and renewable generation in homes. “As a social organisation,” says Peabody’s Environmental Sustainability Officer, Tessa Barraclough, “we recognise our responsibility to protect the environment for our generation and future generations. It is also about setting an example to residents and staff so they can see the kind of things we’re implementing as well as learning about the things they can do.”

But Peabody hasn’t stopped there: it’s launched a £23 million programme to install solar panels on selected properties across the capital, saving around 3,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Peabody’s first installations were financed by a grant, but it was the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff in April 2010 that made the association’s most recent renewable programme possible. “The FIT is the funding stream for the project and was absolutely key to making this work for us” says Tessa.  “Another driver was being able to bring PV and renewable technology to our residents. It’s important that we don’t just leave it to the people who own their own properties.”

Which solar supplier?

 

 
Good Energy works with several different solar suppliers and installers, chosen not only for their specialist skills in different areas of technology, but also because we believe they offer good value for money. Here are some of our recommended suppliers:

Established over four years ago, Freesource Energy supplies green energy systems ranging  from domestic homeowner schemes to large scale renewable energy systems for property developers, architects, farmers, landowners, factories, schools, hospitals and commercial businesses. Uniquely, Freesource Energy, based in Corsham, Wiltshire, is a British company offering British manufactured PV solar panels and even British funding for customer installations, from its own investors. In the last year, Freesource has experienced a dramatic increase in both interest and uptake of large-scale commercial solar projects from farmers, landowners, business, industry and developers, largely due to the Feed-in Tariff.

Since 1998, Solarcentury has helped thousands of homes go solar through its supply of PV systems to homeowners, through its respected regional installer network. Founded by Executive Chairman Jeremy Leggett and led by CEO Derry Newman, ex Managing Director of Sony UK, it is based in London, with 120 staff in the UK, France and Italy. Since 2010, it has worked with ethical investor Triodos Bank, to help customers finance solar installations with the Feed-in Tariff. Solarcentury also founded the schools initiative Solar4Schools, helping over 260 schools learn with solar and SolarAid, the charity helping rural African communities to replace kerosene with solar power. Its accolades include UK’s Fastest Growing Private Energy Company (Sunday Times) and a Guardian 'Global Cleantech 100 company'.

Covering Bristol, Somerset and the South West, Solarsense is a fully accredited installer of both solar thermal and PV systems and have installed over 3,100 such systems since 1994. Solarsense is dedicated to making the complete solar experience - from booking a survey to commissioning and servicing the system - as simple and hassle free as possible.  As an MCS accredited member of the Solar Trade Association and the Renewable Energy Association, Solarsense assures its customers a quality service and installations of the highest standard, and several of its installations have been award winners over recent years.

Southern Solar has been helping people across the south of the UK make the most of renewable energy since 2002. Specialists in the installation of both solar thermal and solar electrical systems, the company has built a strong reputation for delivering a high quality service to commercial, public sector and domestic clients, successfully completing thousands of solar projects. With five regional bases in Sussex, London, Bristol, Hereford and South Wales – and a new Oxford office underway – Southern Solar teams are able to survey, specify, install and maintain solar systems within a 100-mile radius of each base.

Founded in 1995, Sundog Energy has installed over a thousand PV systems – ranging from home systems to one of the largest and most complex arrays in the UK currently being fitted at Kings Cross Station. Its director, Martin Cotterell, sits on the Renewable Energy Association Consumer Code panel and is at the forefront of developing industry standards within the UK and internationally.  Last year, Sundog won the British Renewable Energy Developer award. It offers customers expert design for their PV project, installation by highly trained and experienced engineers, overseen by dedicated project managers.  It also aims to have the best record of customer satisfaction in the renewable energy market place while operating to strict ethical and environmental standards.

Investing in your own system vs PV-for-free

 

 

by Will Vooght, Head of Research, Good Energy

Following the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff in April 2010, many people took the view that putting your money on your roof in the form of solar PV (panels for generating electricity) could be a wiser alternative than sticking it in the bank.

PV isn’t cheap – which is why the payment for small solar generators has been set high. This brings it in-line with other generation technologies and encourages investment. But not everyone’s got £10,000 or more to invest in their own renewable generator, so several schemes have recently sprung up offering individuals the chance to ‘rent out their roof’ to a PV installer. The householder benefits from free electricity while the installer collects the FIT payments – a concept known as ‘PV-for-Free.’

So are you better off paying to install your own system, or taking advantage of a PV-for-Free scheme?

Well, if you’ve got the cash and are planning on staying in your property for a while, investing in your own generator is not only a sound environmental practice – it’s a good economic one too. For a modest-sized, well-positioned system, (say, 2.5 kilowatt peak, costing around £12,000) you could expect a return of around £1,000 a year. Taking into account the money you’d also save on your electricity bill, your investment should pay for itself in around 10 years. And payments are guaranteed for 25 years so you’ll be in profit for another 15 – more than doubling your initial outlay.

If you haven’t got cash to invest upfront, accessing a decent loan might be the next best option. Say you are paying back the loan at a typical rate of 8%, your PV should have covered its costs over a 15-16 year period. That gives you around 10 years of interest-free earnings.

However, if you don’t want to invest your own money or accept the risks of borrowing money, PV-for-free can be an attractive option. In return for ‘renting’ your roof, the investor claims the FIT and exported energy payments, but all the electricity you generate and use from the panels is free. This could save around £140-£150 a year on your bills, more if you are able to increase your electricity usage during the daytime when the panels will be generating most and reduce it at night. 

While the quantitative arguments appear to favour installing your own system, there are qualitative reasons for PV-for-Free. For example, installing and maintaining the systems are someone else’s responsibility and it’s in their best interests to make sure it’s working optimally. Some companies also give you the option to buy the system from them once they’ve installed it so you can ‘try before you buy’.

Good Energy is really pleased that there’s now such a big choice available for homeowners interested in generating their own solar power: our advice is to make sure you fully understand your options so you can determine which is the right choice for you.

To find out more please visit www.generateyourown.co.uk, and if you have specific questions please email fit@goodenergy.co.uk

Bye bye January blues, hello 'Hot 100'

 Students at Nyangwayo School in Muhuru Bay, Western Kenya celebrate their solar installation.
Photo Credit - SolarAid

January is notoriously the gloomiest month of the year. The seasonal festivities are well and truly over leaving in their wake a few pounds of extra body weight, piles of wrapping paper and a fridge full of leftovers. And that’s not to mention the New Year’s resolutions that are already starting to look optimistic. But it doesn’t have to be this way, thanks to the charity SolarAid.

Set up by Dr. Jeremy Leggett, founder of Good Energy partner Solarcentury, SolarAid is on the hunt for 100 people to raise £1000 each, in any way they want (the more creative the better), over the next 12 months. So why not combine your New Year’s resolutions with helping to tackle both climate change and global poverty? Working in rural areas across East and Southern Africa, SolarAid installs solar panels on schools, community centres and clinics, so that some of the poorest people in the world can harness their own renewable energy and transform their lives.

Perhaps you have designated 2011 as the year to really get fit? Why not do a sponsored run or cycle ride? Or perhaps you just want to do something a sociable? Try organising a wine a series of wine tastings for your friends, a car boot sale or an entertainment event.

Becoming one of SolarAid’s ‘Hot 100’ fundraisers is totally free and the charity promises you a lot of fun along the way, with the chance to win an inspirational trip to Africa to see for yourself how they are spending the money you raise, as well as invitations to pub nights to meet fellow challengers, and an end of year dinner to celebrate your achievements.

For any enquiries, please email hot100@solar-aid.org. And remember, it's hot for a reason. There are only 100 spaces and it's first come, first served.

Like so many of the best innovations, SolarAid is a simple idea but one that has made a huge impact, reaching around 100,000 people with solar power since it began. What started as a group of volunteers meeting a couple of evenings a month, has now grown to more than 30 employed staff and over a hundred volunteers today - making it one of the fastest growing NGOs.

See the story of Bob Kokonya, a farmer in Kenya who was spending the majority of his meagre income on lighting his family home with dirty, inefficient and dangerous kerosene powered lamps. Thanks to help from SolarAid, Bob can now invest his income in his farm, in other basic needs, or in more solar power.

The RHI - how it could work

After much recent speculation about the fate of the Renewable Heat Incentive in the upcoming comprehensive spending review, nuggets of hope from the Conservative Party Conference yesterday. In his speech, Minister of State in the cabinet office Oliver Letwin, MP confirmed the Government’s support for an RHI: “Our incentive for renewable heat will bring forward the generation of heat from waste and other renewable sources - a crucial part of cutting carbon and maintaining energy security,” he said. As our CEO Juliet Davenport commented, "It’s great news the Government is supporting the Renewable Heat Incentive – now we need to hear the details and find out the level of payments and how it will be delivered."

Not surprisingly, we’ve got our own ideas about this.

Heat accounts for 47% of the UK’s carbon emissions, while renewable heat is currently only 1% of overall heat demand. An effective RHI is an essential step towards a low-carbon future, and could boost this to as much as 12%. Good Energy has been offering our own version of the RHI – HotRocs – since September 2008. The way this works is that our gas customers pay a small levy which creates a pot of money to spend on research and to provide our customers with solar thermal installations a payment of 4.5p/kWh of deemed heat produced. The Good Energy HotRocs initiative currently supports over 450 solar thermal users, equating to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 270 tonnes a year.

An equivalent UK-wide scheme for renewable heat based on the current FiT scheme would be simple to implement.

Here’s how it could work:

	Feed-in Tariff	Renewable Heat Incentive
Levy upon	Licensed electricity suppliers	Licensed gas suppliers
Paid by	Mandatory & voluntary FiT Suppliers (subset of above)	Mandatory & voluntary RHI Suppliers (subset of above)
Paid on	Total metered generation & deemed or metered export	Deemed heat production
Validation by	MCS	MCS
Administered by	Ofgem e-serve	Ofgem e-serve

Because of the support gas customers received from government when building the gas grid – which off-gas-grid users have not benefitted from – the levy should be solely on gas suppliers. Off-gas-grid users should be entitled to the support of the RHI without cost to compensate for the earlier financial losses. As with the FiT, off-gas-grid customers should be able to request that a mandatory RHI supplier acts as their RHI provider, even though they are not a gas customer.

Heat metering is expensive, but deeming heat production is a recognised methodology, and field trials by various organisations such as the Energy Savings Trust are improving it all the time, making the RHI simpler than the FiT.

Administering the RHI and possibly the FiT will also be more cost-effective for both Ofgem e-serve and the Utility companies if it is done by cloning the existing FiT systems. This would save costs which are ultimately borne by energy customers.

A UK-wide RHI will also be instrumental in addressing fuel poverty as, like FiT, it provides an opportunity for social and private landlords to earn an income in return for their investment in renewable technology, whilst providing free heat to their tenants.

We know it can work because we’re already doing it.

Our partners Friends of the Earth have launched a campaign calling for the government to introduce the RHI – please show your support by writing to your MP. Together we do this.

Roofs, yes. But PV or not PV – that’s the question

Secret files on solar energy collaborator, Part 1:  Dave Hampton

EVIDENCE
9-panel, 1.66KWpeak, photovoltaic (PV) solar panel installation

LOCATION
on the Carbon Coach’s home in Marlow, Bucks

COST
£10,000 all inc

SUPPLIER
Freesource, Good Energy’s chosen renewable energy installation partner

ACCOMPLICES
Transition Town Marlow 100 Solar Panel project:http://www.transitionmarlow.org/index.php?p=1_2_Solar

The low-carbon detectives are on my trail. Here’s my review of the installation.

I am delighted to report that my PV panels are up, on the roof, and generating much clean raw power, plus useful cash.  The panels are of course being very closely watched and monitored, by me, and by my friends and Marlow neighbours.

They make me feel deeply and inordinately happy. I get waves of pleasure just to see my powerful panels and to witness their production of sustainable energy.

They look good, feel good, are in good taste, and, by golly, they do you good!

Hi-visibility roof coat
My installation is on the side roof, the exposed side of our house which is on a corner plot.  The nett (curtain) effect of which is that my panels are quite noticeable to passers by. I view my panels with as much awe and admiration as I would a Picasso original. They are both a work of genius.

The elegant clean lines, the silver and dark blue crystalline refraction/reflection effect, the large-tile-upon-small-tile pyramid cubist design. The light and shade, the diametric composition of juxtaposition and orthogonality…

None of my neighbours seems unhappy about the installation. One said he didn’t exactly find them attractive, but neither did he notice them much. Most neighbours are interested in how we get on with them.

One household is having a survey, and is currently deciding if they want to go solar.  I hope they will.

Local nuclear – or new clear vision

If some people insist they really ‘don’t like the look’, then I suppose I could ask them if they would prefer a small local nuclear power station – somewhere near them – in Marlow on (cooling water) Thames instead?

Some of my friends are positive or neutral about nuclear, but I don’t think any would welcome it within 50 miles of their home town, let alone bolted onto their roof. Like my micro ‘nuke’ is…

My solar PV installation is in effect a local nuclear power harnessing plant, human scale, with the core reactor located a nice, safe distance away. (93 million miles: The Sun.)

The waste trail you don’t see
Upstream in the supply chain, to make my solar panels and kit, if you think about it, is an alarming trail of waste, mining, manufacturing and energy use, from all over the world. Long before they generate their first unit of clean power in Marlow, my beloved panels have left some sort of trail of pollution behind them. But here’s the deal. It’s not big.

In ball park terms, the upstream damage, the ‘eco-baggage’ that my panels arrived with from day one, amounts to some 1000kg of greenhouse gas equivalent impact. They will pay that back in full within two years.  They will sweep up all their own eco-mess, their footprint in manufacture etc, during the first two years of operation.  Thereafter, for the next 20 years or more, they will be sweeping up other people’s pollution – and fully be in (planetary) credit, increasingly so, for each year they keep on keeping on.

In carbon terms, my panels weigh less than minus 10 tons – over their lifetime!

This thought gives me a little lift.  Like the balloons in the movie ‘UP’, my panels uplift me.

In less than 20 years, well before my 70th birthday, my panels will have saved a nett 10 tons of CO2, after taking into account the CO2 involved in manufacture and transport. And they will have saved, at a power station, over their lifetime, the equivalent of around 20 barrels of oil being burnt as well. Picture all that fossil fuel being left in the ground.

The whole process of old-fashioned power generation, from the oil well, coal mine, fuel extraction, fuel intake, the waste streams (heat, smoke, spent fuel) and all the risks, is fully concealed from us. It takes place many miles away, behind concrete walls, with coal trucks, smoking chimneys and warmed up local rivers the only tell-tell signs. In contrast, PV panels are open, transparent, risk free and locally autonomous.  Also, the more they generate, the more they don’t pollute, whereas the more power old-fashioned fossil or nuclear plants generate, the more they pollute, and the higher the bill, until eventually they cost us the Earth.

Each PV panel ever made has effectively a negative legacy footprint on the world. It is also carbon quids-in, providing it is given a nice roof to sit on, and a nice home to power for life. The technology is ecologically restorative, when it displaces dirtier generation.

The more PV we use, the less CO2 we put into the atmosphere overall.
In this sense, planting PV panels on your roof is almost as good as planting a tree.

Put your money where your roof is

Despite knowing all this, it still took me five years to take the PV plunge. And to save up the money. When we eco-refurbished our entire house five years ago, we satisfied ourselves with just a solar hot water panel (and a small token PV panel for the pump for the solar system.) But I had set aside an area of south-facing roof. It was designated for PV one day.

£10,000 is a shed-load of money

Let’s get the big, scary number out of the way.

£10,000 (fully inc).
£10,000 is a shed-load of money. It’s a roof-full of PV.  It’s also on a par with an ISA, or a slice of pension fund, going without a new car for a few years, or missing out on a family foreign holiday or two.  I appreciate it is still a shed-load of money, and I know I was lucky to be able to do it, and not everyone can. 

If you are a homeowner, the ‘asset value of the home’ is a moot point, as no-one really knows what the asset value is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if our home would raise £10k more on the open market than a similar property without the PV panels.  So you can view it as home improvement.

And Home improvement too – with a capital H. 
Sooner or later we need to start living on our HOME planet as if we intend to stay here forever. See ‘HOME’ the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

It is possible my kids will benefit more from the legacy of millions of solar panels than they ever will from the legacy of £1000s in my will.  Is PV making my WILL POWER-ful?  Globally, there need be no shortage of will power.

Rent
"No generation has a freehold on this Earth. All we have is a life-tenancy—with a full repairing lease." Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher MP
If you rent your home, there is every reason to lobby your landlord or the council to fit PVs.  Many landlords are already considering doing this. Your voice in support could tip them into action.  You may even be able to help educate them about the grants, Feed in Tariffs (e.g. business benefits, etc. Don’t assume they know all about how good it can be.)

PV is a well-kept secret that the nice fossil companies don’t really want people to discover...yet...

The Numbers
I don’t want to throw too many numbers at you, but here is the deal.  Depending on the weather, rain, cloud or shine, my panels generate about 10 to 70 pence an hour during daytime. 

On a bright day, and averaged over 24 hours, my nine panels supply ALL my electricity needs. Over an entire year, I expect them to generate around a THIRD of all that we use.
Over a year we expect the savings, plus the Feed in Tariff income, to be worth £800.

Our energy provider, Good Energy, won’t be sending us bills. They will be sending us cheques! Cheques for the (government enhanced) value of all the FiT power we generate, less the small cost of the energy we import.  

Next week I will be reviewing the highly acclaimed ‘Wattson’ remote energy display meter which is the perfect accompaniment to a PV installation.

Dave Hampton

The Carbon Coach

http://www.carboncoach.com/

Overcoming the barriers to microgeneration

In a four-part series we've been researching the barriers to generating independent renewable energy, and here we suggest some potential solutions to the problems.

Week 4 - Access to Information & Consumer confidence

Anyone investing in microgeneration will need between £4,000 and £25,000 to get set up. This is significant expenditure for any household and the homeowner wants peace of mind that they are opting for the right technology at the right scale and the right people to install it.

Our survey confirmed our perception that people found it difficult to access detailed, informative, impartial and reliable information on microgeneration.

Homeowners find it hard to understand which technology they will benefit from most, because they don’t necessarily know how a home uses, conserves and wastes heat and power. They’re also concerned that the most detailed and useful information comes from microgeneration installers that they could not view as impartial because they were selling a product.

Good Energy, despite having a commercial interest, has tried to fill the information vacuum through our website www.generateyourown.co.uk. This recommends a stepped approach for homeowners to follow guiding them through decision making on technology, identifying installers, identifying products, accessing finance and grants and getting paid for the energy generated.

The Energy Saving Trust has also recently expanded its resources on microgeneration to help homeowners with their decision making.

As companies in this industry establish their brands and certifying bodies such as the Microgeneration Certification Scheme become more recognisable, the information they provide should be more trusted by homeowners.  

Keep an eye out around June as Good Energy will be launching an online forum giving people an opportunity to share knowledge and experience in this field.

Consumer Confidence

Closely linked to the access of information about microgeneration is the confidence - or lack of confidence - consumers have in microgeneration in relation to the products and the installers. Our  awareness of this lack of confidence was a motivator for providing a service in the market. Good Energy’s customers were expressing an interest in microgeneration but also a concern that it was difficult for a homeowner to identify which installers in the market had the skill and experience to provide excellent service. Good Energy undertook independent research to evaluate a number of installers and, through the www.generateyourown.co.uk website, recommends a shortlist.

Accreditation of products and installation companies is essential and is being delivered through the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).  While the value of this accreditation process is understood and appreciated within the industry, it will take time for consumers to develop the requisite trust and understanding for the MCS to deliver widespread consumer confidence in microgeneration.

A concern that Good Energy has noted several times is the cost of the accreditation process for both installers and products. These costs present obstacles for start-up companies and some homeowners believe the cost of accreditation is reflected in the price they pay. This is causing some consumers to opt for non-accredited products and installers. This directly contravenes what the MCS should be achieving and is pushing some homeowners away instead of towards accredited products and services. This may result in some homeowners paying for bad products, badly installed.

This is not what we want to see.

While it is likely that the MCS will help to safeguard most homeowners, the costs of accreditation must be kept to a minimum to ensure fairness for new microgeneration market entrants and affordability for homeowners.

Conclusion

Over the last four weeks we have looked at the barriers to independent renewable energy generation and made some suggestions for how they can be resolved. Please let us know what you think too. If you’re interested in generating your own energy the best place to start is www.generateyourown.co.uk