How long is the payback on a new solar system

UPDATE 1st October 2022 saw new energy prices and interventions, we have a new blog post outlining better ROI and payback period for solar panels which can be seen here.

The solar panel industry has seen many changes over the last ten years from selling your roof to outright ownership.

Early expensive solar systems were made profitable from the old Feed In Tariffs (FIT) which paid solar system owners significant amounts. Many schemes fitted solar for free allowing the occupier to use the free energy and the generated excess fed to the grid, went to the solar installer, often referred to as sell your roof.

After the government ended the FIT many free solar schemes ended, recently some councils have launched their own schemes but these are rare and limited budgets and benefit low income households and those in receipt of benefits.
Over the years as material costs have fallen so to has the price of solar panels a previous £10k solar panel system now costs as little as £6k and with the increasing energy prices the payback period is sure to reduce.

Lets look at the figures based on a 4kWh system at £5999 which on average might generate 2850kWh for a typical install.

Based on a household energy consumption of 3500kWh.
Solar energy split 60/40 between use and Smart Export Guarantee

These paybacks are based on current lowest SEG prices of £0.05 per kWh there are better rates available from suppliers including Octopus who are currently offering their Agile tariff which matches the wholesale electric price and changes every 30 minutes further shortening payback period. Some industry analysts are claiming payback periods as low as 4 years from January 2022.

Wil-Lec are the area’s leading independent installers of solar systems, for your free quote please contact us here.