Tring in Transition Solar PV Club

As you might know, not-for-profit local sustainability group, Tring in Transition ran a ‘Solar PV Club’ a few years ago, to encourage Tring residents to install solar PV at a discount by clubbing together. 18 homeowners took this opportunity, and have been producing their own green electricity ever since.

They want to repeat this project in 2020, to try to further incentivise Tring to adopt more solar, and kindly gave us this update:

Using a team of local volunteers, we did the hard work to find an excellent and trustworthy installer who ticked all the boxes, and independently analysed the predicted returns from a solar PV system on your house. But hang on – didn’t the government withdraw the incentives?

Even without the Feed-In Tariff, fitting solar PV is a great thing to do, reducing your electricity bill, reducing your impact on the environment, and getting the satisfaction of generating your own power. Global equipment prices have continued to fall, also benefiting the UK market.

You will get the best annual returns (of around 5-7%) on your investment if:

• You have a reasonable-sized roof which faces somewhere between southwest and southeast without shading during the day, and is inclined
• You use a substantial part of your energy during the day – perhaps you have a young family, work from home, or are retired

Naturally, your PV system can also be coupled to an energy storage system (battery), allowing you to store that green power and use it in the evening.

The Tring Solar PV Club can provide solar PV systems from £3,900-4,500 (minus solar PV club discount – TBA) for a typical 3-4 kilowatt system (12-16 panels). Smaller systems still make sense, and can be as little as 1 kW (3-4 panels). Larger commercial systems are also available on request. PV systems have a life of 25-30 years, and need virtually no maintenance.

Thinking of taking the plunge or just have a question ? – contact Tring in Transition: transition@tringintransition.org.uk or briankazer@hotmail.com.

We hope to get at least 5-10 homeowners interested over the next few months, following which we could then confirm the likely solar PV club discount, and put you in touch with the selected installer.

We have no financial interest in promoting this scheme and no connection to the installer.  We are simply a community group with a passion for renewable energy.