How to get cashback on electricity, using solar panels

With solar energy being a much more sustainable method of creating electricity, the British government has been incentivising householders to install solar photovoltaic (PV) panels on the roofs of their houses, offering cash payments based on their usage.

This means that a householder paying between £7,000 and £11,000 for solar panel installation would receive 21p for each kW generated from the solar panels for 25 years. In addition, you would receive 3.1p for each kW of non-used electricity that your solar panels generate. This unused power is then fed back into the national grid. This cashback scheme is known as the Feed in Tariff.

Clearly, buying a house with a large roof in a sunny party of the country could be a good investment.



Solar power is clean, green energy which Solar PV panels will generate for a minimum of 25 years (many early Solar PV installations are still producing electricity after 50 years).

Solar PV panels' cells are silicon-based pieces of material that absorb light. Solar energy excites the electrons in the solar cells and converts this energy into electricity in the form of direct current (DC).

The DC has to then be converted to Alternating Current (AC) at 230 Volts through an inverter.

Aqua Solar Energy, Lymington, calculates the return on investment to be between 6.5% and 9%.

In their pricing table, they say solar panels costing around £7,255 could bring in around £473 per year, while solar panels costing £11,300 could generate a £1,022 annual return for the owner.

You can read about the Feed In Tariff scheme on the Ofgem website.

The Feed In Tariff is currently under dispute after the government initially launched it at a rate of 43p. However, there was so much demand that they decided it would not be affordable to sustain the Tariff. when it was lowered to 21p, campaigners took legal action. The rate still stands at 21p at the time of writing.

Solar panels work while it's not sunny because they need solar radiation to work, not direct sunlight. Brighter days will bring better performance, but bright sunshine is not essential.

They solar panels can be installed wherever there is a suitable surface to attach them, however there also needs to be protection from damage, which is why they are usually installed on rooftops. Theoretically though they could be installed on the ground.