Question:
I have just had solar panels and battery storage installed on my home which we purchased via the Solar Together Berkshire scheme. I was amazed at how quickly installation took place and how competitive the price was. The return on investment appears to be is in the region of eight years and it is having a marked impact on the electricity we import, reducing it by around 25% and what we are not using is exported which is about 28% of what we have generated - this is only in the last two weeks.
I’d like to understand how the scheme is doing across the Borough and how well it has been received?
Minutes:
Question:
I have just had solar panels and battery storage installed on my home which we purchased via the Solar Together Berkshire scheme. I was amazed at how quickly installation took place and how competitive the price was. The return on investment appears to be is in the region of eight years and it is having a marked impact on the electricity we import, reducing it by around 25% and what we are not using is exported which is about 28% of what we have generated - this is only in the last two weeks.
I’d like to understand how the scheme is doing across the Borough and how well it has been received.
Answer:
Thank you for your question, Caroline.
It is the first time we are running the Solar Together Scheme in our Borough, and we are pleased to hear that you were able to take up this opportunity and thank you for sharing your positive experience.
We have been working collaboratively with four of the other Berkshire authorities on the Solar Together scheme, and across all five authorities, it has attracted over 7,000 houses and small businesses to register their interest since its launch in June.
In Wokingham Borough, over 2,800 residents and small businesses registered their interest, although we do not anticipate all of those will come to fruition. But so far over 500 have accepted their offer, paid their deposit and are having their surveys and installations done for either Solar PV, battery storage or both.
The scheme has performed exceptionally well in our Borough. Out of all five of the authorities, in Wokingham, we have had significantly more registrations of interest and conversions to proceed than our neighbouring authorities, and to be in a position whereby approximately 500 buildings in the Borough will have the ability to generate their own green energy because of this scheme, is a significant step forward in the building decarbonisation plans of the Climate Emergency Action Plan. In addition to reduced carbon emissions, these properties will also benefit from lower bills and increased energy security.
Supplementary Question:
Will there be an opportunity to revisit this scheme in the future?
Supplementary Answer:
So, we are continuing to evaluate what is going on at the moment and we are going to look at the feasibility of doing this. I hope so because we are getting a lot of interest from people, they are seeing their neighbours having solar panels put on their buildings and they are now asking can we do this. So, there is a lot of interest and we hope that we can. There is a couple of things that we need to make sure happen first. We are not a big enough Borough to do this on our own which is why we are doing it with the other Berkshire authorities, so we need to ensure that they do it as well, and making sure that we have got that resource in place as well. All being well I would like to think that we can.