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. 

Solar panels cost is most often expressed as a price per watt-peak, which tends to be lower for larger systems due to efficiencies of installation. However the output of solar panels differs by region and depends on the intensity of sunlight, hence the cost per unit of electricity generated (kWp) differs per region. For several regions in the UK, here are the current cheapest costs for a 4 kWp system based on pricing data from CompareMySolar:

Table: Cost of a 4 kWp of Solar Panel System (lowest price April 2011) / kWp generated over 25 years / cost per kWp generated

Hence in the UK, the best price solar panel system currently costs about 12.0 pence per kWh generated. How does this compare to other consumer measures of energy, for example the cost of electricity, petrol or food?

The average electricity price in the UK in January 2011 per kWh is about 12.8 pence according to Ofgem, which equals of the cost of solar panels. It should be kept in mind that electricity prices have been rising quickly, and we expect them to rise about 5% annually towards over 40 pence per kWh in 25 years.

For petrol, the price per liter is about 136 pence in the UK (April 2011) An average UK car drives uses about 80 kWh or 8 liters per 100 km, which means there are about 10 kWh in a liter of petrol. Hence with the current petrol price this equals a price of 13.6 pence per kWh, which is comparable to the electricity price.

For food we took three low cost products with high Calories: a big mac, sugar and rice. The calculations are based on 860 Calories per kWh. A Big Mac costs about 2 pounds and contains approximately 490 Calories. Which equals about 0.6 kWh or more than £3.50 per kWh!

Other foods like sugar and rice are often stated to have a low cost per calorie. At Asda a large 2 kg bag of Sugar costs £1.34 and has 7740 Calories (9 kWh) which equals 14.9 pence per kWh. A large bag of 5kg of rice costs £4.18 and has 14800 Calories (17.2 kWh) which equals 24.3 pence per kWh. All these costs per kWh are compared in our graph and shown below:

Concluding, the solar panels cost per kWh in Exeter is cheaper than electricity, petrol and food in the UK. Solar panels will only become more attractive as electricity, petrol and food prices are increasing rapidly, while solar panels are actually becoming cheaper. According to Solarbuzz, the module cost of individual panels has declined 50% in ten years from €5.41 towards €2.73 per Wp in Europe.

Furthermore, the government incentives of 43.3 pence per kWh generated largely outweighs the cost, which makes solar panels an incredibly good and stable investment! Not only do you receive 43.3 pence from the government, but you also save the cost of electricity! See what you can earn with your roof now and check solar prices on www.CompareMySolar.co.uk