Homes and green businesses generating renewable and low-carbon electricity are to be guaranteed money for excess electricity supplied to the grid.
New solar homes and businesses creating and exporting electricity to the grid will be guaranteed a payment from suppliers under new laws introduced by the government this week (Monday 10 June).
The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) will ensure small-scale electricity generators installing solar, wind or other forms of renewable generation with a capacity up to 5MW will be paid for each unit of electricity they sell to the grid – tracked by their smart meter.
Residential solar panels are now over 50% cheaper than in 2011. SEG will build on the previous government subsidy scheme, which drove the installations of 850,000 small-scale renewable projects, but without passing on the cost to consumers.
Stockport Energy Business Kast welcomes new law
Stockport based KAST, who have been providing renewable energy technologies for over 4 years in the North West, welcomes the introduction of the Smart Export Guarantee funding as an additional benefit for consumers, bringing down the period of Return on Investment in a similar way to the Renewable Heat Incentive for Heat Pumps:
“ As a country we rely less and less on coal powered power stations, our nuclear power stations will not be expanded, but we import more and more energy from Europe.
Renewables and Micro Generation represent almost 40% of our current generating capacity in the UK, this needs to increase and the Smart Export Guarantee will encourage more investment into consumer generation of energy, putting control of consumption and cost back in the hands of the consumer.”
KAST are promoting green energy and the control of energy consumption through a range of products such as PV Panels & Battery Storage, Heat Pumps, HVLS Fans, & Electric Vehicle Charging and as improved products have entered the market, have project managed the combinations of technologies to achieve maximum savings. KAST welcomes the introduction of the Smart Export Guarantee funding as an additional benefit for consumers, bringing down the period of Return on Investment in a similar way to the Renewable Heat Incentive for Heat Pumps.
Encouraging suppliers to competitively bid for electricity will give households the best market price for their energy, while providing the local grid with more clean, green energy, as the UK bids to become a net zero emissions economy.
Energy and Clean Growth Minister Chris Skidmore, said:
The future of energy is local and the new smart export guarantee will ensure households that choose to become green energy generators will be guaranteed a payment for electricity supplied to the grid.
We want the energy market to innovate and it’s encouraging to see some suppliers already offering competitive export tariffs to reduce bills. We want more to follow suit, encouraging small-scale generation without adding to consumer bills, as we move towards a subsidy-free energy system and a net zero emissions economy.
SEG will place a legal obligation on energy suppliers with over 150,000 customers –covering more than 90% of the retail market – to introduce export tariffs by 1 January 2020. Some energy suppliers, including Octopus and Bulb, are already offering new smart tariffs, with some exceeding those offered under the previous subsidy scheme. At peak, solar has provided more than a quarter of the UK’s energy demands.
The previous Feed-in Tariffs (FIT) scheme closed to new entrants from 31 March 2019, following consultations in 2015 and 2018, to reduce the costs to consumers as the price of installing solar panels came down.
SEG is designed to continue to grow the small-scale renewables export market by supporting local generation. Combined with existing technologies, like smart meters and battery storage, SEG will help bridge the gap to a smarter and more efficient energy system of the future.
The government is keen to support households and businesses in being able to store energy in batteries in their homes, which consumers will monitor on their smart meters, respond to price signals and choose the most economical times to charge their electric cars and sell their electricity back to the grid. In turn, this will help cut consumer bills, reduce the strain on energy networks, and give consumers more control of their energy use.
The new solar scheme comes as the government will unveil the winners of the latest round of the Energy Entrepreneurs Fund this week. One of the winners, Brill Power, has been awarded £686,000 in grant funding to explore further boosting the lifetime of lithium-ion battery packs for household energy storage and to bring down their cost for consumers.
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