Solar PV FAQ

Your questions answered

What’s the offer?

The offer is to enable as many households as possible to install solar PV panel along with battery energy storage. This will allow you to reduce your energy bills and your carbon emissions at the same time by reducing your reliance on the national grid and fossil fuel based energy. The aim is to install enough solar panels to generate energy to power your home and store the rest in the battery for when you need it at a later date.

The scheme is also designed to turn excess energy into a potential investment in your home and community, by selling energy stored in the battery back to the national grid at peak times. The scheme coordinates aggregated energy sales across households to the national grid.

This is commonly known as a Virtual Power Plant, connecting potentially hundreds of homes that generate renewable energy and sell their excess in bulk together.

What is PV?

Solar electricity panels (also known as Photovoltaic cells or PV) are a renewable energy generation technology. They absorb light from the sun and turn it into electricity. Panels can be attached to roofs or mounted to frames on open ground, like you would see on a solar farm.

What is the battery for?

Energy generated from solar PVs that is not used immediately can be stored in the battery for future use. This means that on days with lower energy generation you will still have energy for your home. The battery also allows energy to be sold to the national grid at peak times. The energy is sold by our partner, Flexitricity, when the price of energy is highest meaning you get the best return. There will be an easy to use app or platform to help you understand the energy you're using, storing and selling.

What if I already have PV?

That’s fine, you can still have a battery to go with it. Our installers will just neeed to make sure they can work together. The battery will also cost slightly more as it will need its own inverter.

Where does the money go from selling energy to the grid?

Those taking part in the scheme will collectively decide where the profits go. While most of the money earned will go back to the homes that provided it from their batteries, you could also decide to give some to others. For example, members could decide to help those suffering but receiving no other support. Or income from selling energy could go into funding pots for retrofit measures to the houses involved. This would allow members to retrofit their homes in their own time.

What is retrofit?

A retrofit in this instance means when you making an already standing building more energy efficient. This includes heat as well as electricity. A typical retrofit on a house will look at insulating the building, excluding drafts and controlling moisture. This reduces heat demand and your energy bills. Retrofits make homes easier to heat and cool; healthier by reducing damp; and less carbon intensive by requiring less energy overall.

How much does a solar panel and battery installation cost?

A typical solar panel installation costs around £5,500 for a system rated at 4kW. This will generate around 3,300kWh of electricity in a year – the consumption of an average UK home. The amount of PV installed will depend on how much space you have for panels, how much your home needs and, of course, how much you can afford.

Battery installations cost up to £6,000.

There is no minimum size requirement for installations.

What is kW and kWh?

kW is shorthand for kilowatt, a measure of the rate at which energy is being used. 1kW is 1,000 watts, which is about the energy used by a toaster. Leave that on for an hour and you have used a kilowatt hour, written as kWh.

How can I afford IT?

At the moment the scheme is for people who can afford to pay themselves. We are working on providing low cost loans for those who cannot afford those upfront costs.

How long does an installation take?

Depending on the size and number of panels installed, PV installations typically take one or two days, with another day for the battery installation.

What are the benefits of the scheme?

By taking part in the scheme you will see your electricity bills and carbon emissions dramatically reduced. By selling renewable energy back to the national grid you will also be helping to reduce the carbon footprints of others. The money you save is proportional to the energy you are displacing from the national grid, at current prices we estimate you will save between £800- £1500 a year on bills. This would mean that payback in under 10 years, or the savings and extra income could help pay for other retrofit works.

What happens if I join the scheme then move home?

Membership of the scheme is tied to homes with solar panels from the scheme. If you took part in the scheme but then moved house, your membership would end. However, you could install PV on your new property and become a member again. Recent studies have demonstrated that Solar PV installations can increase the value of a property substantially.

Are there any requirements to take part in the scheme?

Solar panels can be installed on the majority of roofs. The main requirement is that the house is situated inside the Electricity North West's trading area. You can check if your is eligible by filling in your postcode on the website.

For the solar installation itself there are some considerations:

Roof orientation

South facing roofs will be more efficient at producing energy – up to 15% more than east or west.

Obstructions to sunlight

Chimneys, trees and other obstructions need to be taken into consideration as they will reduce the amount of time the sun is on the panels and the electricity generated.

Space for battery

The battery storage unit is the size of a large suitcase, so you will need space to store this in your home.

House assessment

A whole house energy assessment is needed to take part in the scheme, which costs £120. This determines if your house is appropriate for the scheme and provides a Retrofit Action Plan – a detailed plan on what measures can be taken to make your home more energy efficient, healthier and warmer.

How low carbon will it be?

The battery will discharge to the grid at peak times, which is when the nation’s gas turbines are running. These emit about 440g of CO₂ for every kWh generated, so exporting 4kWh a day will save about 640kgCO₂/ year. The energy generated over the year will save another tonne of CO₂. However, as the grid decarbonises this will reduce – partly because of the contribution of your roof!

The carbon emitted in production has been quite high. The lifetime carbon savings are still more than the carbon emissions from manufacture, but its going to get close as the grid decarbonises. However, this is changing and recent research has suggested that the carbon emissions from more modern carbon efficient manufacture can be ‘repaid’ in a year.