Green Energy Misinformation

I have just received yet another card through my door telling me how I can get free electricity and make money from solar power.

As with many of the other ones, this has Government written in large bold font to try and distract you from the fact that this is simply an installer of solar power systems who is trying to get your custom.

All the claims sound so wonderful, free energy, get paid for the energy you produce and so on.  These claims are based on facts, but in some cases very loosely!

Let us start off with the free electricity and massive reductions in your electricity bill.  The main problem with this is our lifestyles - we use much of our power at night when the sun isn't shining.  This is due in part to the fact that many people are out of the house during the day and so the home is using little power unless you set timers on wasjing machines and tumble driers to run when the sun is at is strongest.  Of course the other issue is that at night we have lights on, precisely because the sun isn't shining.

This means that your electricity bill won't reduce as much as may be claimed.  There are systems which can store the power generated for use later but they are significantly more expensive and they are not the prices used when trying to sell the system to you.

Now let us look at the amount of power you will generate.  Typical advertising assumes you have a south facing roof at the optimal angle and not shaded by anything else such as trees.  Many people don't have this and when the actual facts are in place then the output falls.  You also need to factor in the typical weather in your location - the figures given are often maximums assuming full sun, and not cloudy days like today.  Finally, there are issues like contamination.  Dirty cells can apparently reduce the power output by as much as ten percent.  How many people would clean their roof?  Many don't event do the gutters.

How about installation costs?  The price quoted is likely to be for an optimal installation.  When they survey your house you may get the odd added extra - access is difficult so it will cost more, or the roof will need strengthening to take the weight (remember your housebuilder will have taken standard design loads such as wind, snow, roof tile weight into consideration but not the extra load of the solar collector).  Perhaps they will also say that the access to your existing electricity supply is awkward so they will charge extra.

So we have a sytem that costs more than the examples, generates less electricity than the examples and relies on a government guarantee on feed in tariffs to provide the returns suggested.

So often a rate of return is quoted which exceeds keeping the money in your bank account.  If you wanted to grow money you would not leave it in a plain old bank account, you would invest.  Potentially you could earn a much higher return than leaving it in the bank and still keep your money safe.  Furthermore, depending upon the investment chosen you could access money if the need arose, not easy to do if it is all on the roof!

I have used the figures from the supplier whose card I have just received and they tell me that the installation will have a payback period in the region of 21 years based on average installtion costs and maximum returns.  Assume the returns are less than promised for the reasons given above and the installation costs more than average and you can see my worry.

Over time it will reduce my carbon footprint, but the footprint of the initial manufacture and installation is likely to mean it could be several years before even that breaks event.

Just like wind power, this is not the answer for this country.