Penrith-based Sundog Energy says that a global oversupply of solar panels has led to tumbling prices over the past year, but panel prices are now starting to increase again and are expected to rise further over the coming months.
In addition, although the Feed-in Tariff rate has been cut significantly, this has reflected the dramatic fall in panel and inverter prices, and the returns from an investment in solar are still very attractive. Current low prices mean that solar PV is accessible to more people than ever as there is less upfront capital cost, but still a very good rate of return.
Martin Cotterell, founder and technical director of Sundog Energy, said: “Solar PV is a very effective way of reducing the future impact of rising energy bills. As a PV system owner, you will get income from the FIT and make savings on electricity bills – which means that a typical PV system pays for itself in 7 to 8 years.
“After that, all the income is profit and, by using your own free power, you won’t have to buy so much increasingly expensive electricity from your supplier. You could think of installing solar PV as pre-buying a proportion of your future electricity needs at a fixed price for the lifetime of the system, freeing you from rising energy prices.”