Feed-in Tariffs

The feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme went live on 1 April 2010. Through the use of FiTs the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) hopes to encourage deployment of additional low carbon electricity generation, particularly by organisations, businesses, communities and individuals who are not traditionally engaged in the electricity market. This “clean energy cashback” (feed-in tariff) will allow many people to invest in small scale low carbon electricity, in return for a guaranteed payment both for the electricity they generate and export.

If you are eligible to receive the FiT then you will benefit in the following three ways:

1. Generation tariff – a set rate paid by the energy supplier for each unit (or kWh) of electricity you generate. This rate will change each year for new entrants to the scheme (except for the first two years), but once you join you will continue on the same tariff for 20 years, or 25 years in the case of solar electricity (PV).

2. Export tariff – you will receive a further 3p/kWh from your energy supplier for each unit you export back to the electricity grid, that is when it isn’t used on site. The export rate is the same for all technologies.

3. Energy bill savings – you will be making savings on your electricity bills, because generating electricity to power your appliances means you don’t have to buy as much electricity from your energy supplier. The amount you save will vary depending how much of the electricity you use on site.

Deemed export

Domestic FiT installations are likely to have their export deemed (estimated) at 50% in most cases until smart meters are rolled out.

FiT Update

The original FiT rate was cut on August 1, 2011 for all systems over 50kW in size.

The Table below outlines exactly how much you can now earn from each type of system, and for how long: