Daily Mail 6th March 2010

This is an extraction from the Daily Mail.

Solar panel sales set to rise 'tenfold'

Sharp, the biggest British maker of solar panels, is predicting a tenfold surge in demand in the next two years as a result of the Government's Clean Energy Cash Back scheme.
General manager Andrew Lee predicts it will boost the number of homes with solar panels from 28,000 to about 250,000 by the end of next year.
'I'm confident that by 2014 there will be about 400,000 homes with solar panels,' he said, 'and the good news is that we believe it will create 30,000 jobs over that period.'

Andrew Lee of Sharps
The future is bright for home-generated electricity, says Andrew Lee
The Department of Energy and Climate Change forecasts that more than 800,000 homes could have solar panels over 25 years.
The upbeat prediction is a response to the unveiling by the Government last week of a generous feed-in tariff and a new system of loans that will enable thousands of homeowners to buy solar panels and other 'green' products such as insulation and mini wind turbines.

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A solar panel system costs between £8,000 and £14,000 for an average house, according to the Energy Saving Trust.
From 2012, families will be able to borrow from electricity providers at a preferential rate. Sharp says it will take less than ten years to repay the loan and a homeowner could bank £36,000 profit on the system over 25 years as homeowners will be able to sell surplus electricity from solar panels to the National Grid from April 1.
The system will cut bills by up to £150 a year while the average household can earn about £900 a year selling the surplus electricity.
Sharp has nearly 40 per cent of the British market, but exports about 98 per cent of the million-plus solar panels made at its plant in Wrexham.