In a rare moment of parental bonding over energy economics, my mum and I both got quotes for rooftop solar this week. The UK's rooftop solar costs more per unit than Australia's - why, and can we change that?
I wonder if coupling neighbourhood coordination with BESS co-location could encourage landlords to modify their rental’s energy systems. Assuming you can balance lower upfront costs with a large enough revenue-share upside.
Interesting article Lucy. I have been investigating and have had quotes for 10kw, 9kwh battery and inverter from around £11k for one of the more premium batteries. There was quite a lot of variation in the quotes. I am assuming there is probably quite a lot of London premium in the price you were quoted (I'm in the Midlands).
Agree re the time / complexity to get grid approval grid - but I believe the main challenge is the lack of capacity on a lot of the local grids and the potential over voltage if too much connects. I saw online they they are consulting about moving standard voltages down slightly to help get more on the grid without requiring reinforcement (apparently we nominally moved from 240v to 230v to align with Europe to make electronics cheaper, but havent necessarily changed the actual voltage)
I am currently 4 weeks into waiting for my G99 (application for over 3.68kw) - and it could be another 4 weeks before I hear. I can't see the wait times reducing as more people connect and the grid gets more congested unless they are forced to invest in growing the teams by OFGEM. To get this they required a detailed wiring diagram - not sure why it cant just be that they tell you what export limit you can have and mandate you have to have a MCS installer?
Hopefully Balcony Solar will be approved in the UK shortly which could be an opportunity (though a lot smaller scale) for you without needing landlord approval.
According to my estimates UK prices for installed solar PV are substantially less than the USA - up to a half. I’m sure Oz is cheaper but I wouldn’t lump the USA and the UK together so much
Thanks David - my estimates too, there's a chart in the piece comparing US, Australia and UK prices and the US is way worse! I don't lump the UK and US together, nor US and Australia - though the piece was inspired by a series by Volts comparing those two markets. I just use the US as an example of a sunnier climate with larger systems like Australia, and even with this endowment the costs are higher than Britain so sun isn't everything. We've fixed some of the administrative issues like automated planning in the UK, and the majority of my piece was more about how we can aggregate and create efficiencies through scale and coordination to reduce the need for subsidies.
I wonder if coupling neighbourhood coordination with BESS co-location could encourage landlords to modify their rental’s energy systems. Assuming you can balance lower upfront costs with a large enough revenue-share upside.
Interesting article Lucy. I have been investigating and have had quotes for 10kw, 9kwh battery and inverter from around £11k for one of the more premium batteries. There was quite a lot of variation in the quotes. I am assuming there is probably quite a lot of London premium in the price you were quoted (I'm in the Midlands).
Agree re the time / complexity to get grid approval grid - but I believe the main challenge is the lack of capacity on a lot of the local grids and the potential over voltage if too much connects. I saw online they they are consulting about moving standard voltages down slightly to help get more on the grid without requiring reinforcement (apparently we nominally moved from 240v to 230v to align with Europe to make electronics cheaper, but havent necessarily changed the actual voltage)
I am currently 4 weeks into waiting for my G99 (application for over 3.68kw) - and it could be another 4 weeks before I hear. I can't see the wait times reducing as more people connect and the grid gets more congested unless they are forced to invest in growing the teams by OFGEM. To get this they required a detailed wiring diagram - not sure why it cant just be that they tell you what export limit you can have and mandate you have to have a MCS installer?
Hopefully Balcony Solar will be approved in the UK shortly which could be an opportunity (though a lot smaller scale) for you without needing landlord approval.
According to my estimates UK prices for installed solar PV are substantially less than the USA - up to a half. I’m sure Oz is cheaper but I wouldn’t lump the USA and the UK together so much
Thanks David - my estimates too, there's a chart in the piece comparing US, Australia and UK prices and the US is way worse! I don't lump the UK and US together, nor US and Australia - though the piece was inspired by a series by Volts comparing those two markets. I just use the US as an example of a sunnier climate with larger systems like Australia, and even with this endowment the costs are higher than Britain so sun isn't everything. We've fixed some of the administrative issues like automated planning in the UK, and the majority of my piece was more about how we can aggregate and create efficiencies through scale and coordination to reduce the need for subsidies.