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British Solar Panel Sales to Increase 1000 Percent in Two Years

Things are looking up for solar power in England, thanks to a bevy of solar incentives soon to take effect in the notoriously cloudy island nation. Sharp Corporation, a world leader in solar panel production that controls some 40 percent of the British market, predicts that panel sales will increase “tenfold” in the next two years, according to The Daily Mail. The main impetus for the sudden and dramatic increase, says Sharp, is a feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable energy that goes into effect on April 1.

british solar panels

The Japanese electronics and solar giant expects the number of solar homes in England to increase from 28,000 to 250,000 by the end of 2011 because solar system owners will soon be able to make a profit from excess energy sold to the national electric grid. Moreover, by 2014, Sharp General Manager Andrew Lee predicts there will be more than 400,000 homes with solar power, creating 30,000 new green jobs in that period, and England’s Department of Energy and Climate Change finds it likely that 800,000 homes could be equipped new solar arrays over 25 years.

In addition to the FIT, the British government also announced a new series of loans that will enable homeowners to pay for solar power with preferential interest rates on loans from electricity providers. The loan program is set to kick on at the start of 2012.

In England, says the Daily Mail, it costs between £8,000 and £14,000 ($12,000-$24,000) to purchase and install an average home solar power system. Under the new loan scheme, it would take less than 10 years to repay the loan and homeowners would save an average of £150 per year while earning £900 per year through the feed-in tariff. That could equal a £36,000 profit over 25 years.

Sharp operates a manufacturing plant in Wrexham, England, but exports 98 percent of the panels manufactured there. Britain’s new FIT and loan scheme should keep a lot more of those panels out of shipping containers and on British rooftops, and maybe even inspire Sharp to expand the facility, creating more permanent green jobs in the meantime.

Photo Credit: Guardian

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