1 Light Year

Well thats its Its been a Light year since i got my Solar Panals Installed, and boy had it been a Great year.

First off i expected to get about 2600 Units in the First Year according to the Estimation tool at solar_estimate
See my earlier blogs for more info on this and the Fits Scheme.

But my first year total came in at 3223 which is a Massive 20% over the Estimate, now i dont know if 2011 was a particularly sunny year, or if the Estimate was just to conservative, only time will tell. but al told year 1 was a great year.  3223 Units equate to a Payment of £1444 , and i estimate (and this is really difficult to work out) that i use 1/3 of what i produced over the year, and this gives a saving on my Electric bill of about £100, so all told my Return in Year 1 is £1544 or greater than 10% of my £15000 investment.

So all told depending on if my Estimate was accurate or low over all, i am still on track for a return of between 8-10%

Better yet as far as im concerned.  Solar Prices have dropped in the Last Year, and There is no longer (in Edinburgh at least) any need for a Building Warrant. That mean that my system would now cost in the Region of 12-13K. This drop means that even if the Fits system was to be totally scrapped. If you can use all power the system produces or, at least sell any unused units at the same cost that you buy them, then Solar Power is cost effective over its 25years, if we assume a 6% increase in Electric costs per year.

years in use	system power	Estimate	kWh cost	Year saving	total saving
1	3.6	2,592.00	0.11	285	285
2	3.6	2,569.97	0.12	300	585
3	3.6	2,548.12	0.12	315	900
4	3.6	2,526.46	0.13	331	1231
5	3.6	2,504.99	0.14	348	1579
6	3.6	2,483.70	0.15	366	1944
7	3.6	2,462.59	0.16	384	2328
8	3.6	2,441.65	0.17	404	2732
9	3.6	2,420.90	0.18	424	3157
10	3.6	2,400.32	0.19	446	3603
11	3.6	2,379.92	0.20	469	4072
12	3.6	2,359.69	0.21	493	4564
13	3.6	2,339.63	0.22	518	5082
14	3.6	2,319.75	0.23	544	5627
15	3.6	2,300.03	0.25	572	6199
16	3.6	2,280.48	0.26	601	6800
17	3.6	2,261.09	0.28	632	7432
18	3.6	2,241.87	0.30	664	8096
19	3.6	2,222.82	0.31	698	8794
20	3.6	2,203.92	0.33	734	9527
21	3.6	2,185.19	0.35	771	10298
22	3.6	2,166.62	0.37	810	11108
23	3.6	2,148.20	0.40	852	11960
24	3.6	2,129.94	0.42	895	12855
25	3.6	2,111.84	0.45	941	13795

All told while no one is likely to install a system that takes the whole 25 years to pay back, it is clear that Solar energy is becoming more and more cost effective and while the Fits Scheme exists (even at the reduced rate) its really a no brainer about installing Solar panels and i am very glad i have.