Harvesting the sun’s energy has never been easier.
Rodney Lava, of Ingersoll’s Rosco Electric tours his 50 kW install at a Tavistock area farm. It’s a FIT (Feed In Tariff) project for generation above 10 Kw of energy.
Design of such a system can be tricky but on this farm all the trades and the suppliers were locally sourced. It’s a large installation with a 5 to 6 year payback on the capital cost.
“It’s very strange”, says Rodney, “the lack of interest in the consumer end of it compared to the money that’s involved when you put panels on and what you recoup…”.
The opportunity is even more affordable for new homes. “Imagine the solar being built into the (new home) mortgage.” The purchaser moves in and “bang,” he says “you get a paycheck from the government that contributes to your mortgage payment”. Take-up, however, is only slowly increasing.
Farmers remain the early adopters of this technology partly, perhaps mainly, because of its guaranteed income over 20 years. Advocates argue it’s a win-win for all.
Post time: Jan-09-2017