Solar comparison site helps 100s of UK residents go green

Aurora · Post by **Aurora** » 21 Apr 2011, 07:48

Solar Power Portal - 20/04/11

For many installing solar photovoltaics is a great idea in theory, but when it comes to deciding which installer and products to use the prospect can be a little daunting. Easing the UK public into the process, CompareMySolar.co.uk offers prospective energy generators the opportunity to assess the potential of their roof without having to go through the lengthy process of getting custom quotes.

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RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 22 Apr 2011, 22:40

I've just had a go with this. Found our roof (on the map) and our installer. Gutted to see that our installation is now nearly £2Grand cheaper than when we had it done...otoh it's something to clobber the Inspector with

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Apr 2011, 08:13

That's an interesting tool. I tried it out for our house. When we installed our system, last September, we got quotes from several companies and drew up a shortlist by eliminating any that quoted more than £4 per Wp installed. That eliminated almost all of them and we decided on Ethical Solar who turned out to be a very nice small company (not included on the lists on this tool - I expect they are getting all the customers they can cope with just by word of mouth).

The prices listed on this gadget are certainly low, with lots of quotes well below £4. If true they show a pretty dramatic drop in six months. I wonder whether these really are what you pay, including scaffolding hire etc.

If so the Inspector will indeed be disappointed.

An Inspector Calls · Post by **An Inspector Calls** » 23 Apr 2011, 10:04

That site doesn't cover where I live in the UK.

So I went back to the spreadsheet I drew up last year for a PV scheme with installer X. It was a set of panels priced at £11,088 with a prediction of annual production of 2,000 kWh. The installer is still there, in business, but I know the company is under new ownership. And they've still got the same panels.

Well good news, the price is down to £9,504, a sizeable reduction. Instead of the payback period (DCF 2.5 %) being 16 years it would now be a mere 13.

But then I looked at their prediction of yearly output and it's also been reduced - to 1,800 kWh. Oh dear, payback period resets to 15 years.

So hooray everyone. One year's technology progress has reduced the payback period on PV panels from 16 years to 15 years.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 23 Apr 2011, 19:37

An Inspector Calls wrote:One year's technology progress has reduced the payback period on PV panels from 16 years to 15 years.

Excellent!

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 23 Apr 2011, 20:34

emordnilap wrote:
An Inspector Calls wrote:One year's technology progress has reduced the payback period on PV panels from 16 years to 15 years.
Excellent!

Compared with 1/4 century of "progress" on the nuclear front, which has brought us from, places which occasionally explode, to, erm, places which occasionally explode.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 23 Apr 2011, 21:52

Oh do be fair. They explode four at time these days. That's real progress.

An Inspector Calls · Post by **An Inspector Calls** » 24 Apr 2011, 09:25

emordnilap wrote:
An Inspector Calls wrote:One year's technology progress has reduced the payback period on PV panels from 16 years to 15 years.
Excellent!

Yeah, well I suppose that economic achievement in the field of power generation would excite a bog-trotter printer.