Have you ever considered renting out your roof?
Jan 26th, 2011 by davidellis
A number of energy companies in the UK are offering home owners free solar PV panels. Under these “rent-a-roof” schemes, households benefit from free or discounted electricity in exchange for allowing the energy company to install PV panels on their roof. The solar panels remain the property of the energy company so home owners are spared the large capital investment normally associated with this technology. However, it’s the energy company that receives the generous Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) being offered by the government for the surplus energy that is fed back into the national grid.
While such schemes do increase the proportion of renewable energy generated within a community, financial savings to the home owner may be quite modest. The Energy Saving Trust, the UK’s leading independant advisory body on saving energy, advises home owners to check the detail of these schemes carefully.
