Old Blighty To Halve PV Owner Subsidy

[SgtRock]

Greetings EEVBees:

--A foggy day in London Town. The Energy Savings Trust plans to cut the PV subsidy for owners by half. This subsidy has formerly been supported by a levy imposed on innocent electric rate payers. Will this levy be halved? Don't bet on it. I am guessing they will keep the levy on to support the welfare state. My own government still charges a tax on telephone service and car batteries; emergency taxes that were imposed to help us defeat Germany and Japan in WWII. See below link for the Daily Mail article.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2055039/Is-sun-set-solar-power--leaked-document-reveals-government-planning-50-cuts-subsidies.html

"Business is never so healthy as when, like a chicken, it must do a certain amount of scratching around for what it gets." Henry Ford

Best Regards
Clear Ether

[Simon]

to be honest about damned time. Solar power has become a racket and the racket has made a mockery of the technology which obviously at those prices looks like money for old rope because it just can't pay for itself.

I'm uncertain of the material and labour costs but i get the impression that companies putting panels up are making a hefty margin, time we all came back to earth. We already know that these installations cost twice as much as proper solar power stations, so why is the government deliberately wasting the money. They cut funds to proper solar power stations so that they could put the money into people pleasing home solar schemes, so much for being ecological or economical.

[Zad]

I totally agree with Simon, PV power in the UK is a huge con. It just isn't worth the investment for the return at our latitude. There are far better investments people can make in terms of power. Having said that, I don't take a lot of notice about what the Mail or Express have to say.

[SgtRock]

Dear Zad:

--Not being terribly familiar with the British press, I merely selected the article for its factual content. But now that I look at it more closely, it does seem to be saying what a fiscal looser this cutback is. Like the money came from the sky instead of the rate payers, who were never mentioned. I can certainly see why you do not pay much attention to this particular publication.

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers." Richard Feynman

Best Regards
Clear Ether

[Simon]

Yes the british press does come out with a lot of dribble. If the basic fact is true then that is my argument. I'm quite happy with solar but I'm pretty sure that like with all things government funded we are paying well over the odds.

Just take a look at the prices of solar panels on ebay and then go and find the very same panels on a so called reputable sellers site or the likes of farnell. The price difference is huge and they are the same god damn panels ! even companies selling on ebay that have their own website have huge price differences on the panels. One big racket.

I don't know a lot about construction methods and quality issues in solar panels but at the end of the day they are just diodes (and some people used to think they caused cancer.....) so they can't be that complicated, it is just the sheer size that may make them costly

[SgtRock]

Dear Simon:

--It is not just the British press. I too love PV technology. There are a lot of incremental improvements being discovered and perfected as we speak. If the government would just leave the marketplace alone, it would soon discover what will work at a given price. Every time the cost of a PV watt goes down a few percent, the technology is useful in a few more places. It is already a godsend in rural villages and remote locations. Here in Florida, Solar Thermal Water Heating can pay itself off in five years, with no subsidy.

--Just wait until the balloon goes up on the Wind Power scam. There will be hell to pay.

"When I can't handle events, I let them handle themselves." Henry Ford

Best Regards
Clear Ether

[Simon]

oh yes any countries press is about the same. But yes I'd also prefer that solar technology would ride the market on it's own and without government hand outs that just allow its price to increase. It is already quite competitive with price per KW dropping by about 25-30% each year.

I don't mind wind power, I think it has about the same capability as solar in the UK and complements it reasonably well. I live not far from a wind farm and they are always turning. but again I don't beleive in gov backing for them or at least not at the cost it comes