Birmingham to fight fuel poverty with solar - report

(ADPnews) – Oct 5, 2010 – Solar photovoltaic (PV) power panels will shine on 10,000 council houses in Birmingham under what is set to become the UK’s largest solar panel installation programme.

The Guardian reported that the Birmingham City Council last week approved the GBP 100 million (USD 158m/EUR 115.5m) project to install PV panels on up 10,000 properties in some of the poorest parts of the city.

The Birmingham Energy Savers initiative will propel the city a big stride forward to the target outlined in its Declaration on Climate Change to retrofit 10 percent of homes with renewable technology by 2015 and curb carbon dioxide emissions 60% by 2026.

The generated electricity will be subsidised under the UK’s feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme, which pays an above-market rate for each unit of electricity produced plus a second tariff for each unit of electricity that is then exported to grid.

Businesses and households installing solar PV systems pocket up to GBP 0.413 per kWh for both power used on site and exported to the grid.

In an analysis released early last month, the Renewable Energy Association (REA) highlighted solar PV as the most popular technology supported under the FIT mechanism. Figures by energy regulator Ofgem showed that 6,930 solar PV panels were installed in the UK’s domestic sector in the first five months of the programme.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.581/EUR 1.155)

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