When cuts to the feed-in tariff (FiT) were first proposed last summer, the UK solar industry braced itself for the impact of severely reduced incentives for homeowners. Even though the resulting tariff was not as low as first planned, no one can question the seismic shift that has occurred since the start of the new regime on 8 February.
At the time of writing, just 15MW of sub 10kW solar had been deployed on the new 4.39p tariff between the start date and March 22. To put that in context, the calendar month of March 2015 saw just under 2GW of solar within this band rolled out across the UK.
This reduction is a stark reminder of the new world UK solar finds itself in and without the same financial incentive, the question remains: how can UK installers win new work in the domestic market?
Taking a new approach
The biggest marketing adjustment for many will be the shift away from focusing efforts on selling solar based on a FiT rate that is no longer available. Prior to the cuts, maximising the size of a system was key to how installers approached the domestic market.
But as Robert Flynn, managing director of Essex-based installer Solarbarn, points out, the changes have severely hit the proportion of homeowners willing to stump up the cash for an installation.
“Back in the good old days with a generous FiT, if you had a decent size roof solar just made absolute sense in pretty much every case, regardless of your consumption. The current generation tariff rules out a proportion of domestic homeowners for whom it used to make sense,” he says.
To continue reading this article, download the latest edition of Solar Business Focus UK magazine which is available free of charge here. In this issue you’ll find not only the complete article new marketing and lead generation techniques, but also insight into what a potential Brexit might mean for the UK’s energy market and a look at the opportunities for solar installers with local authorities.
