Feed in Tariff

The UK Feed in Tariff Scheme was set up under the previous labor government to encourage micro-generation at a consumer and business level using micro-generation techniques such as wind turbines and solar panels. Despite the current government having taken the knife to the scheme and reduced some of the incentives to bring people to renewable energy the scheme is still worth investing in as a consumer, simply because it means you can pay for your own energy.

How the Feed in Tariff system works is that you will get paid a set amount of money per kilowatt hour of electricity that you generate through either solar, wind or any other renewable method. Currently, you can get up to 41.3p p/kwh although there is another review of the scheme due in 2012. This rate is guaranteed for 25 years by the government and for the consumer it can mean over £1000 every year. If you get your solar panels up now, you could earn over £25000. Whatever you manage to earn, you will very quickly pay back the cost of the panels themselves as well as a continuous reduction in the price of your electricity bills. There’s simply no reason not to do it!