Large multinational companies have joined the solar party with the launch of a number of summer time 'special' offers. One of which is a 'limited time only 20% off solar panels'. Don't be fooled by the advertising just ask yourself these important questions: What is the actual market value of the equipment they will install? Is it the best value for money? Who exactly will be doing the installation works? The answers to these questions highlight some serious issues with offers such as these.

A domestic solar PV system has been monitored over its first year and has generated 23% more than predicted and yielded a whopping 13% return on investment! The property located in South Wales that found an installer of Solar PV through Save and Generate has completed 1 year of generation. The system has out-performed expectations. Here we summarise the results and economics of what is a fairly standard solar PV installation. The conclusion? NOW is a good time to invest in a solar PV.

This blog forms the last in a 3-part series of accounts dedicated to capturing our experiences with getting solar PV installed on the Save and Generate Headquarters.

After all the bad news about the increases in energy prices from the big six (e.g. British Gas will increase their tariffs for gas by 18% and for electricity by 16% after 18 August 2011), and especially after reading many badly documented news articles which either promote solar energy or talked really badly about it, we thought it was about time to show you some values and how these energy price hikes are set to affect us all. At the same time we wanted to show you what opportunities exist by 'going green' and installing a renewable energy system at your house.

Solar photovoltaics, finally something worth investing in, both from a financial and a sustainability perspective, and sure enough, the financial advice media gets it completely wrong yet again. You can't help but wonder why journalists dash into writing these articles that are so blatantly misinformed, can it really be that they simply haven't done their home work?

Follow Save and Generate Director Mike Soldner's experiences with getting solar PV installed on the company's headquarters. Take a virtual tour of the first stages of the installation works.

One year after publishing the shocking findings of its first consumer research report on the solar industry, slating the sales tactics used in the solar thermal (solar hot water) industry, a second consumer study comes up with the same findings for the solar photovoltaics (solar electricity) industry. This time Which? not only name and shame specific companies, but also highlight the fact that a striking contradiction in Government rules enforced through the MCS may have a role to play in this as well. To S&G these findings come as no surprise and we have long been developing consumer guidance to help overcome these issues.

Follow Save and Generate Director Mike Soldner's experiences with getting solar PV installed on the company's headquarters. A visual first-hand guide through the minefield of selecting the best installer and system for a given situation.

For all of you who haven't seen it, here is the factsheet from Ofgem with the Feed-in Tariffs adjusted rates for all the different clean energy technology types. These are the new generation and export tariff rates that will be paid to whoever install a clean energy technology system from 1 April 2011 until 31 March 2012.

The news that the governments renewable energy installation support mechanism, the Feed In Tariff (FIT) will come under premature review has generated an angry retort from the sector saying that the uncertainty is scaring off much needed investment. The good news is that there is no indication that the review will threaten the FIT rate for small domestic systems. This secures the excellent investment opportunity that is domestic scale solar PV that can give a guaranteed return of 5-12% on an investment for the next 25 years.