| Since our last update in September 2010, the system has continued to perform well despite the generally gloomy weather over the winter. Our generation meter reading in November was again questioned by Centrica as being "out of tolerance", again accepted when we sent a photo of the generation meter reading. Our second three month Feed In Tariff payment was £250, giving us a total of £663 for the first six months against the original forecast of £750 for a full year. |
| The monthly daily kWh averages since September were October 6.38, November 2.95, December 1.83, January 2.75 and February 2.95. The November to February figures really show how little sun has been around over the winter, but the slight upturn in February is a hopeful sign particularly as some days towards the end of February were up around the 4-5 kWh level. |
| At the end of February we had just passed the Feed In Tariff forecast for the full 12 months which was £750. With two and a half monts to go the total was £761, and we estimate that the final outturn for the year will be around £950, which will be an amazing result particularly taken in conjunction with the savings on our electricity bills which we reckon to be at least £250. |
| On the face of it combined savings and feed in tariff of £1200 for the year sounds pretty good. But when the capital cost of the system - £12,5000 - is taken into account, there are stil some questions about the viability of solar PV. The payback period is still over 10 years on these figures, and we were lucky to get an interest free loan to buy the system. Without this loan there would have been interest payments to consider, which even on a mortgage at 5% p.a. would add up to over £3,000 if repaid over 10 years, extending the payback period to over 13 years. This would have made the decision to go for solar PV more difficult for us, and the planned reduction in the feed in tariff will further weaken the financial case unless capital equipment costs drop significantly. If a 20 year perspective is taken, then the case of course looks stronger particularly if likely energy cost rises are taken into account, but it still seems to be something you have to want to do for reasons other than saving money. |
|
