Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?

In my opinion the following news deserves it's own thread.

Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?

Plans for the grid feed-in tariff suggest we live in southern California. And at £8.6bn, this is a pricey conceit with little benefit

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On 1 April the government introduces its feed-in tariffs. These oblige electricity companies to pay people for the power they produce at home. The money will come from their customers in the form of higher bills. It would make sense, if we didnt know that the technologies the scheme will reward are comically inefficient.

The people who sell solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and micro wind turbines in the UK insist they represent a good investment. The arguments I have had with them have been long and bitter. But the debate has now been brought to an end with the publication of the government's table of tariffs: the rewards people will receive for installing different kinds of generators. The government wants everyone to get the same rate of return. So while the electricity you might generate from large wind turbines and hydro plants will earn you 4.5p per kilowatt hour, mini wind turbines get 34p, and solar panels 41p. In other words, the government acknowledges that micro wind and solar PV in the UK are between seven and nine times less cost-effective than the alternatives.
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A week ago the German government decided to reduce sharply the tariff it pays for solar PV, on the grounds that it is a waste of money. Just as the Germans have begun to abandon their monumental mistake, we are about to repeat it.

Buying a solar panel is now the best investment a householder can make. The tariffs will deliver a return of between 5% and 8% a year, which is both index linked (making a nominal return of between 7% and 10%) and tax-free. The payback is guaranteed for 25 years. If you own a house and can afford the investment, youd be crazy not to cash in. If you dont and cant, you must sit and watch your money being used to pay for someone elses fashion accessory.

www.guardian.co.uk...

What this means is that the people with the money to pay for photovoltaic panels will get paid, but they will get paid by the customers in the UK who can't pay for photovoltaic panels because electric companies will increase their fees to pay those customers with the solar panels.

If we could ask Nikola Tesla what he thinks about all of this nonsense I think we'd get a pretty angry response.

To think we had all of our energy problems solved decades ago... what a shame

that sounds about right, greed is always going to be a driving force in this world until money is no longer an issue...bend over and say cheese

reply to post by ElectricUniverse


The solution is for ppl with the Solar panels should take themselves off the grid if they can produce enough power for themselve instead of trying to make a profit. That way the power companies can focus on those who are not producing power. But Im sure there is a law in place that will not allow someone to remove themselves from the grid.

PV cells loose efficiency over time. Even the ones built today will loose efficiency within a couple of years. None made today will be effective after 25 years. If you have to replace or add additional PV cells later on it is going to cost you. Hopefully it will be like the modern computer though and come down in price.