I'm just about to embark on the planning process (live in a conservation area) to have solar panels put on my roof to generate electricity and hot water. The introduction of feed in tariffs means they should pay for themselves in about 8 years with the feed in tariffs being guaranteed for 25 years. I agree that there is no point installing them if you haven't dealt with the roof insulation and fitted low energy light bulbs etc.

Personally I'd like to make it compulsory for all new builds to be fitted with solar panels (can be done as roof tiles) for electricity and hot water generation as well as decent loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and double glazing. If PV panels were required for all new builds then they could be manufactured in bulk and the price would come down.

If you're thinking about doing it then you've got about 18 months before the feed in tariffs you lock into will be changed (probably down). The payback on a turbine is less than for solar PV (about 6 years). My view is that we should all do our bit even if it is just trying to reduce the amount of energy we use or thinking about food miles before we buy something. If we all reduce our personal carbon footprints then the overall footprint should reduce as well.

Community schemes would be great and seem to work where they have been implemented but they depend on a community existing which is sadly not the case in most places anymore.

I am extremely fascinated by the idea of installing a home wind turbine, and creating energy from home. An added bonus would be the capacity to sell the excess energy back to the electricity board. It's definatelt option I am currently considering.

Hi Huckster,

One of the members of the public I spoke to certainly agreed with you - he was worried they were not efficient enough to be worth spending money on.

Having said that, all our experts agreed that making a home more energy efficient is the priority. Rebecca Willis of the Sustainable Develepment Comission put it quite well I think - she said: "There's no point sticking solar panels on an uninsulated roof."

Mat Colmer from the Energy Saving Trust argued that it isn't just about making savings, it's about reducing your carbon footpring and adding value to a home - do you agree that e.g. solar panels do that?

I agree with you that community-scale energy production sounds like a brilliant middleground.

Felicity

Felicity

Even the founder of the countries leading green energy provider, said in a recent interview that the current cost/benefit of installing either wind turbines or solar panels is neutral at best. This is based on it taking about 20 years to recover the cost of installing these. Money would certainly be better spent on making homes more energy efficient.

I believe the way forward is community based energy production facilitated through local authorities. Energy can be created for example by burning household waste or farms generating it through processing waste. It is only if these technologies are used on a reasonable scale and subsidised that they would be of positive value.

Huckster

Hello,

The most recent moneysupermarket.com podcast is now available on the site and through iTunes. In it, we discuss whether fitting individual homes with renewable technologies is part of the answer to cutting the country's carbon footprint.

We hear from Russel, who uses solar panels to generate electricity and heat water; from Mat Colmer of the Energy Saving Trust; from Rebecca Willis - the vice-chair of the Sustainable Development Commission; and from our own Scott Byrom.

We also spoke to members of the public - who questioned how much this kind of technology would cost, whether it would work well enough and if it isn't the government's job to green our energy supplies rather than the providers.

It's been an interesting debate and now I want to know what you think? Would you consider adding solar panels to your roof or adding a wind turbine to your land? Is it better to concentrate on making homes more efficient rather than making them generate their own power?

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Felicity