Why Free Solar Panels Are a Bad Idea

You’ve seen the adverts promising free solar panels and installation – it’s hard to miss them, after all. They may sound like a good deal, but there are a number of reasons that accepting a free solar PV system deal may not be to your advantage. Here’s what they’re not explaining to you.

How Solar Companies Benefit from Giving You Free Solar Panels

The UK is pressing to increase the use of renewable energy sources as quickly as possible. To that end, the Department of Energy and Climate Change offers a subsidy to energy producers for each kilowatt hour of electricity produced by renewable energy sources like solar panels. It’s called a feed in tariff, and it’s paid directly to the owner of the solar PV system.

The feed-in tariff rate is set by DECC, and is guaranteed to stay the same or to increase for 25 years from the time that a solar PV system is certified and accepted into the system. At current rates, the solar panels on your roof are likely to pay for themselves in just six to seven years. Most companies that offer free solar panels and solar PV installation hold a contract for 25 years – because that’s the number of years they can reap the benefit of the feed-in tariff. Even if it takes a full ten years to recover the cost of your solar panels through the tariff, the solar company will receive 15 or more years of profit that could be going into your pockets instead. Why would you give up 15 to 18 years of steady, tax-free income for generating your own electricity and reducing your electric costs each month?

In addition, when a solar company installs a free solar PV system on your roof, it ties up your roof for the next 25 years. While that’s also true if you pay to have the solar panels installed yourself, you’ll have control over them in a way that you won’t if they’re owned by an electricity supplier or a solar company. If there’s damage to your roof and you have to remove the solar panels, who will pay? Will you be liable for other costs if you have to remove the solar panels? And what happens if the solar company fails to honor its commitment to repair and maintain the solar panels on your roof?

When you choose to buy a solar PV system and have it installed, you’ll have full control over the system and over your roof. You’ll also benefit from the feed-in tariff scheme, which could put money in your pocket for the next 25 years.