Just before the end of last year Rexel conducted some research to determine the public’s attitude towards solar. The results proved pretty alarming.
The most worrying statistic? 61% of those we asked had no idea what feed-in tariffs were.
The results of the survey paint a pretty demoralising picture. Clearly, the solar industry is not doing a very good job of communicating the benefits of solar to the wider UK public.
Too often the industry falls back on the tired excuse that the sector was so successful in lobbying against the feed-in tariff cuts that the public think solar is ‘no longer worth it’. But the results of our research show that the majority of people don’t even know what the feed-in tariff is. That in itself is a much larger problem.
The industry needs to be better at communicating directly to the public about what is good and give real examples of how PV can protect from future potential energy increases. Leaving the message up to the general press to explain the name ‘feed-in tariff’ was a mistake.
