November feed-in tariff cut for solar pv

Feed in tariff cuts are now determined by the total capacity installed in the previous quarter. For example, the 1st November 2012 reduction of 3.5% is determined from the number of installations carried out in the 3 month period of May, June and July 2012.

The current rate for pv systems under 4kW is 16p and this will reduce to 15.44p from the 1st November 2012. This is quite a small cut, especially when compared to recent cuts. If you also consider that the FIT payment is only part of the benefit of having a pv system installed, the other financial one being the avoided import i.e. the electricity you don’t need to buy as a result of producing your own, then the cut is even less significant.

So all things considered, there is still a good return to be made from installing a pv system. Prices continue to come down and as the FIT rates approach the unit electricity price, they become a smaller part of the whole sum and therefore less important.

You can see the complete Photovoltaic FIT rate table for 2012 at Ofgem

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