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Solar is an outstanding option when it comes to residential alternative energy in the United Kingdom. UK’s Department of Energy calculates that houses registered with solar power stand at 554,186 compared to that of only 6,302 wind turbines and a combined number of installs of 1,231 for the other alternative energy sources of hydro electric power, biogas and micro combined heat and power (Micro-CHP).
This is a staggering 99% choosing solar over the alternatives, a major reason for this comes down to cost. A major impact of people choosing solar over the alternatives is that installation of solar panels is much cheaper than other alternatives. To encourage UK home owners to choose green energy, the UK government introduced the feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme which gives you a yearly payment once you have installed and registered your green power source. The payment is standard for the different options, but the cost of the other sources compared to solar mean that the FiT payment could pay for your solar panels within 10 years while the alternatives could take twice as long.
Alan Harvey from Approved Trader stated that: “The FiT scheme has been a huge success for renewable energy in the UK, but it is important that the alternative options are not neglected. All the different green technologies should be vigorously pursued to ensure we make the most of the earth’s natural resource and reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned to power the UK.”
With prices of the different units how they stand it is a fair assumption that solar will continue to prove the most popular, and help push breakthroughs in solar technology.