Here in France, where I am at the moment, every school roof is covered in solar panels, they have started to put solar shades over the supermarket carparks (shae is very welcome here in the summer) and every winegrower covers the rooves of his buildings. The system is different here, but they get an excellent return from the government and so much more friendly than fracking which seems to me to be very destructive.
It is a myth that they need sunshine to work, they generate all the year round though much less when it's cloudy. We considered it a longterm investment - we were promised it would have paid off the installation costs in ten years, but it is likely to be seven or eight the way things are going. So for those years you have the reduced cost of electricity, but after that you have around £2000 a year income which is worth considering.
Our water heating has been entirely solar from April to late September this year. We have two panels; sadly we don't have the right aspect for voltaics but we are considering free-standing panels, which are certainly feasible.
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Here in France, where I am at the moment, every school roof is covered in solar panels, they have started to put solar shades over the supermarket carparks (shae is very welcome here in the summer) and every winegrower covers the rooves of his buildings. The system is different here, but they get an excellent return from the government and so much more friendly than fracking which seems to me to be very destructive.
It is a myth that they need sunshine to work, they generate all the year round though much less when it's cloudy. We considered it a longterm investment - we were promised it would have paid off the installation costs in ten years, but it is likely to be seven or eight the way things are going. So for those years you have the reduced cost of electricity, but after that you have around £2000 a year income which is worth considering.