The number of solar installers in the UK has grown dramatically since the introduction of the Feed-in-Tariff in April 2010. According to the MCS website (the UK accreditation required to be a solar installer) there were more than 4.150 installers at the end of March 2012. This compares to just over 200 accredited solar installers early 2010, when the Feed-in-Tariff was due to get started, which is a twenty-fold increase! However, going forward this may be going down.. Continue reading →

DECC has released their latest Energy Trends statistics earlier today, which now include provisional data for entire 2011 (up to Q4). The general trend is that we use less energy. Domestic electricity consumption in the UK dropped more than 5% in 2011, the biggest drop ever! It continues the trend of declining electricity usage since 2005, and currently electricity usage is about the same as it was 12 years ago in 2000. Continue reading →

Looking for the Best Solar Panels we have previously identified large global manufacturers and popular UK manufacturers as key selection criteria. However, solar panels do also differ on technical characteristics. Therefore to help consumers find the best solar panel we present 7 Criteria of High Quality Solar Panels.  Continue reading →

This is a copy of a guest blog by CompareMySolar for the SolarPowerPortal, which has been ‘most read’ for over a week now. The price of residential solar panel installations has dropped by 50 percent since early 2011, according to research by CompareMySolar. Therefore, consumers can achieve a similar financial return as before – despite cuts in the feed-in-tariff from 43p to 21p. Building more awareness around this can help drive demand, following recent negative news about subsidy cuts and court cases. Continue reading →

According to data released this week by the UK government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) the number of residential solar panel installations dropped dramatically after the 3^rd of March deadline. While in the last week before the deadline there were almost 20.000 residential installations, in the week after there were just over 1.000, which represents a demand drop of 95%. Continue reading →

In our search for the best solar panel, we previously looked at the largest solar panel manufacturers in the world. But within the UK there are different brands that are also very popular, for example the most used brands by solar installers, or the most requested brands for quotes by consumers. It appears that although the top 10 global brands represent about a third of consumer quote requests, the 10 other popular UK brands represent a larger 40% of consumer quote requests. Continue reading →

Every year IMS Research publishes a list of the 10 largest global solar panel manufacturers. When picking your ‘best solar panel’ it is important to choose a large manufacturer, since your panel warranty often is valid for 25 years. Top 10 companies are more likely to be around in 25 years time than small ones, so this list is important in picking your best solar panel:  Continue reading →

Research by CompareMySolar shows that domestic solar panel installations in the UK have dropped in price by 30% in 2011. Further price drops are expected early 2012, as many solar installers offer low priced deals to push demand in the months after the FiT cuts. This can result in a financial return of over 10% for a South-facing roof.  Continue reading →

Research by CompareMySolar shows that UK Solar Panels have a lower cost per kWp than average prices of Electricity, Petrol and even foods like Sugar and Rice. It is expected that Solar becomes more attractive in the future as electricity, petrol and food prices increase rapidly, while solar panels are actually becoming cheaper.  Continue reading →

The UK Feed-in-tariff has been around for one full year now, and solar panels are clearly becoming much more popular in the UK than ever before. A total amount of 78 Mega-Wp or over 28,000 solar panel installations (average 2.7 kWp) have been reported to Ofgem, the government energy regulator, between April 1st 2010 and March 31st 2011. Over 90% of this was installed in England, and the rest in Schotland and Wales (Northern Ireland consumers can’t apply for FiTs for now). Looking at these UK solar panel installations, what are the most popular areas?  Continue reading →