Despite our reputation for cloudy, grey weather, the UK has more than enough sunlight to power solar panels, and most properties are suitable for solar panels.
Solar PVs use light to produce electricity, not heat, and the UK gets around 60% of the solar radiation found in the Equator.
In some places in the UK, we receive a similar amount of sunlight to Germany, which is one of the biggest markets for photovoltaic solar panels in the world. Even though solar panels produce more power on a sunny day, they can still produce a considerable amount of energy when the days are cloudy.
Solar energy is the world's fastest growing renewable energy solution, and it is easy to see why when you read about the benefits of having solar:
Slash your energy bills
Savings depend on your system size, your electricity use, whether you have battery storage or not, and a few other factors.
Based on Energy Saving Trust estimates, a typical household with a 3.5 kilowatt-peak solar panel system can knock between £195 and £480/year off bills at Energy Price Guarantee rates (March 2022).
If you install battery storage, you can eliminate energy bills, become energy independent, and live off-grid.
Energy production during peak hours
Energy demand tends to be higher between 11:00-16:00 and then early in the evening. As a result, this is the period when the price of electricity from the grid peaks. The good news for solar panel owners is that solar energy happens to reach its maximum production capacity during those hours.
Get paid for your solar energy
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme was launched in January 2020, to enable households to get paid for energy their panels generate, but that they don't use. This surplus energy is then exported and pumped back into the national energy grid.
Energy suppliers with 150,000+ customers are required to offer Smart Export Guarantee 'tariffs' to households that pay a set kilowatt hour (kWh) rate for surplus solar power.
Increase the value of your home
Solar panels increase the value of UK properties. According to a survey in Renewable Energy Magazine, solar panels can add £28,762 to the average value (£205,445) of a property.
Sale prices of properties across the UK that have gone solar have increased by 14% on average.
Reduce your carbon footprint
Solar power is low-emission. Solar panels produce no pollution, although we should mention that there are environmental costs from manufacture and construction. However, when compared with the damage inflicted by fossil fuels, the environmental tolls from solar are negligible.
The burning of fossil fuels releases approximately 21.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. Each kilowatt-hour (kWh) of solar power that your panels generate will reduce greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as other pollutants such as sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides.
Low water consumption
Unlike fossil fuels and nuclear power plants, wind energy has one of the lowest water-consumption footprints, which makes it a key for conserving hydrological resources. Solar is the cleanest, most viable solution to prevent environmental degradation.
Solar energy never runs out
Solar power energy source that is both renewable and inexhaustible by definition. In fact, solar is the most abundant energy resource on earth -- 173,000 terawatts of solar energy strikes the Earth continuously. That's more than 10,000 times the world's total energy use.
Solar panels are getting cheaper
As the price of energy has rocketed, the price of solar panels has come down. Since 2010, solar panel prices have dropped by 70%. There are no two ways about it - generating solar power and using it yourself gives a far bigger saving now than it used to.
Around 3-5% of energy is lost when your energy is transported and distributed around the network. The longer the distance between the place of energy production and your home, the more energy is lost.
A 3-5% loss might not seem significant but the loss can influence the performance of the installation in regions with a dense population. Having rooftop or ground-mounted solar panels reduces the distance your energy needs to travel, increasing the efficiency of your solar panels.
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