Mapping the council houses with solar panels

Under FIT, excess electricity generated by solar panels could be exported back into the National Grid, and customers received payments based on the scheme’s export tariff and generation tariff.

“We have been fitting solar panels since 2012. The system we had rented out the roof space to third parties. They installed solar panels and took most of the income, but the main benefit was to the tenant, who received free electricity. We’re not using that system any more, since the feed-in tariffs are much less advantageous and unattractive for third parties,” John Batchelor, lead cabinet member for housing at South Cambridgeshire District Council, says.

FIT was closed in 2019, but the number of solar panels across the UK has gone up by more than 50% since then, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), as the cost of panels has come down, making them much more affordable for homeowners.

Soaring gas prices at the start of the Ukraine war, exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, drove take-up in the residential market without the need for subsidy.

In South Cambridgeshire, 2,815 out of 5,470  homes (51.5%) owned by the local authority have solar panels, and it is adding more.

John Batchelor, lead cabinet member for housing, says South Cambridgeshire District Council has installed 28 solar panels on its new builds, with plans to install another 400 to 500 in the next four years.

“It saves [residents] some money,” he says.

A high take-up brings its own challenges. “There are differences [between] working on blocks of flats versus houses,” he adds. If you install solar on a block of flats, should all residents benefit from the electricity savings, or just council tenants?

Colchester is another council with a high percentage of homes with solar panels: 2,747 out of 6,064, or 45.3% of its stock.

However, it has been difficult to manage residents’ expectations around energy savings and the technical limits of fitting solar panels, such as when a roof has an unsuitable orientation or it is shaded, a spokesperson for Colchester City Council says.

“Flats or maisonettes often lack enough roof space. Colchester City Council and Colchester Borough Homes [the council’s ALMO] worked closely with residents to explain [solar panel] advantages and address concerns,” the spokesperson adds.

It is also important to note that solar panels don’t “fully shield” residents from rises in energy bills, they add.

In South Cambridgeshire, Mr Batchelor says residents have been “thankful” for the solar panel installations, which have offered a “substantial advantage”.

“Residents now ask if their homes can be considered for panels. Feedback from both past and current installation projects has been overwhelmingly positive,” he says.

“It’s essentially free electricity, and it contributes significantly towards our net zero targets.”

Social landlords still rely on subsidies. South Cambridgeshire now funds panels on existing homes as part of its retrofit programme, using £1.7m from Wave 2.1 and £8.3m from Wave 3 of the WH:SHF. It augments this with funding from commercial investments and from its reserves.

Colchester City Council has been installing solar panels since 2011, with most installed up to 2016 through the FIT scheme. Between 2011 and 2012, it installed around 700 solar panel systems, and then another 2,100 between 2014 and 2016, but the council says it is now unlikely to take on large-scale projects.

In 2023, it received £1m from Wave 2.1 of the WH:SHF.

“More recent installations have been on a much smaller scale, targeting homes with lower energy performances, fully funded by the local authority
or co-funded through grants. Renewed funding streams, flexible grant criteria and advancements in solar technology would make a real difference,” a spokesperson says.

Richard Sterling, development and decarbonisation director at construction company Seddon, says: “A main challenge for local authorities is deciding whether to invest in solar panels, because they don’t necessarily get a direct payback. One of the main differences between where we had a real peak in installations 10 years ago [and now] is the feed-in tariffs.”

When asked about a way to increase funding for retrofits, Mr Sterling suggested involving the private sector. He said there was “a lot of available investment” from organisations such as institutional investors and pension funds for renewable technologies to blend with government funding to reach net zero goals.

He says solar panels are a simple technology, easy to use, quick to install, and create an early impact that doesn’t require much cultural change in the way homes are used.

“A main challenge for local authorities is deciding whether to invest in solar panels, because they don’t necessarily get a direct payback”

They can be installed “in a matter of a few days”, he adds, depending on whether further work is needed on the house and the size of the panels.

“It is a fundamental way of reducing the carbon intensity of a home and it has a direct reduction in energy bills for residents. [Solar panels are] becoming increasingly cost-effective as the technology has improved, and its evolution to integrate with battery storage means it has become usable at all times of the day,” he says.

The government seems unlikely to bring back the generous tariffs of the past. A DESNZ spokesperson told Inside Housing: “Our Warm Homes: Local Grant and Social Housing Fund will help up to 170,000 households in social housing or on low incomes to lower their energy bills through measures like solar panels.”

So, while government funding has helped many councils to install solar panels on their homes, progress remains unbalanced. The question is: will the government do more to support councils in hitting their green-energy targets?

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