In a deal that sounds too good to be true at face value — multiple solar technology companies in the UK are offering free solar installations to homes. The homeowners are not expected to pay a single penny to the companies and they can then use these installations to cut down on their own power bills. But that does not mean the companies are not making any money. They are in fact, making quite a bit thanks to the Feed-in-Tariff incentive.
Feed-in-tariff, as explained in an earlier post, is a scenario where companies or individuals get paid to use solar installations to generate power for themselves and staying off the main grid and feeding it with green energy instead. This is an incentive to push people and companies to adopt solar technology to generate clean, renewable power.
Capitalizing on this are solar companies Isis Solar, HomeSun and A Shade Greener. They are offering solar energy installations worth £11,000-15000 for free to homeowners. The homeowners in exchange get to use the free energy generated by these panels for 25 years — the time period stipulated by the feed-in-tariff. According to HomeSun’s estimates, homeowners stand to save some 30% of their energy bill.
The solar companies will also be responsible for maintaining the solar panels during the term of the 25-year agreement. The agreement will apply to the house and not the homeowner. So it will become an integral part of the house. The companies will also insure the panels against theft, damage or vandalism.
Customers will benefit from both the benefit from the feed-in-tariff and the free electricity for the 25 years. At the end of that, it will just be the free power. In the meantime, the companies also stand to earn quite a lot — about £1450 per house per year for 25 years. That’s more than doubling the investment these companies are making.
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