With the announcement in 2010 of the government’s Feed-in Tariff Scheme, the PV market boomed with installations, rewarding customers with better rates on investment than the banks. The "FIT" has now ended due to grid parity of PV systems, made possible with the decreasing cost of PV technology. This means that with rising electricity costs and lower installation costs, it is still possible for a PV system, lasting in excess of 25 years, to recuperate its costs within 10 years.
This is made possible by a combination of both savings made by generating your own power for use in the property and by exporting/selling the unused power generated to the grid/electrical supplier. This is monitored using a smart meter which the majority of electricity customers now have.
The third way of optimising savings is by using battery storage.
Batteries capture any unused solar power during the day for later evening use or on low sunlight days. Battery storage provides more independence from the grid. For most grid connected systems,
having a battery will not protect you in the event of a blackout due to "anti islanding protection". This protects engineers working on the grid during a grid shut down, from unexpected power (solar
panels) being present.
The latest inverters can however provide anti islanding protection and still provide power to your property, from the PV system or battery backup.
You may need more battery capacity to run a house for a few hours, but you can limit use to only critical circuits such as lighting and fridges.
Schools, housing associations, property management associations, residential and commercial properties can all benefit from the PV and The Eco Team will be happy to
answer any questions you may have regarding installation and expected financial returns, and are always keen to provide a site survey and quotation if requested.
The Eco Team offer extremely competitive supply and installation packages for PV systems with or without batteries. Our large supplier database means we can always source the correct and
most efficient equipment as a bespoke solution for your project, regardless of roof type, height of building or electrical supply.