The company A Shade Greener (http://www.ashadegreener.co.uk/) is basically taking advantage of the marmite like Feed in Tariffs (FITS) scheme, introduced in April this year, which requires the electricity companies to pay householders who install Solar panels a whopping 43p per KW produced for 25 years. Critics such as George Mombiat argue this simply rewards the rich at the expense of everyone else who will pay for it through higher electricity bills.
So how does the business model of a company giving away a product worth around £15000 to £20000 work, Basically the panels will still be owned by the fitting company for the first 25 years, who will thus receive the FIT scheme payments. Ownership will transfer to the homeowner after this point. The homeowner will receive any electricity produced by the panels free of charge.
So is it worth it, the answer is Yes, if you have a spare £20000 make the most of it and essentially be paid for producing electricity, if you don't, then take advantage of receiving a product worth thousands for nowt , which will add value to the property and cut you electricity bills.
But where does such a scheme leave us in wider planning terms, and can small scale renewable schemes actually have any purposeful impact in reducing climate change? probably not, but like a well known Supermarket states 'Every Little Helps'.
Personally I would rather see every south facing roof in the developed world, producing at least some electricity, than no electricity at all, what is the harm? While I and im sure many will agree, small scale schemes have less of an environmental footprint than large Wind Farms or Nuclear power stations.
But as non-renewable sources run out or become two expensive to be viable, I cannot help but feel, the Fits scheme is nothing but something for the politicians to be doing something. When in reality all it does is cost those unlucky enough not to own a South facing roof a hefty amount, while only meeting a tiny % of the electricity we need to generate. The Government needs to be brave, avoid short term thinking and fund something radical unfortunately this is not going to happen, only last Monday (18th October) the government announced that the Severn Barrage project was to be abandoned in favour of developing 8 new nuclear power stations. The Lib-dems incidentally opposed nuclear power in opposition, isnt power a wonderful thing!
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