The Commercial Feed in Tariff

The Feed-in-Tariff scheme is available for all installations of Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV) but reduces with the scale of the project to reflect the cost savings from larger projects. This means that there are certain sizes of installation which tend to be the most cost effective and therefore give the best return on investment (ROI). See table below for current solar Feed-in-Tariff levels.

What is the Feed-in-Tariff scheme?

The Feed-in-Tariff scheme is a Government initiative designed to reward adopters of electricity-generating technologies such as Solar Photovoltaic (Solar PV). All Electricity suppliers are required to collect payments of the solar Feed-in-Tariff from all electricity bill payers and this is paid to those who have accredited installations via OFGEM.

How does the Feed-in-Tariff scheme work?

  You can be paid for each unit of electricity your Solar PV
  system generates - this is known as a Generation
  Tariff. Additionally, you can receive payments for
  electricity you generate but don't use. This is known as
  an Export Tariff. Both of these tariffs are linked to the
  Retail Price Index (RPI) and this is implemented in April
  every year.
 


For commercial installations over 30kW, unlike a small domestic installations, the exported electricity is metered half hourly and you are paid for the actual quantity of electricity generated. You can negotiate with a supplier for this electricity and usually will get a significantly better rate than the 3.1p/kWh available to domestic installations.

It's important to remember that the payment levels for the solar Feed-in-Tariff can and do change from time to time. As such, the tariff level or price per unit of electricity generated or exported you are entitled to, will depend on when your solar photovoltaic panels are installed and the payment levels available at that time.
 
To qualify for the solar Feed-in-Tariff, an installation must be connected to the incoming electrical supply of an occupied building. This can be commercial or domestic occupancy. If there is no occupied building which the connection is made to then the system will be considered as “Stand Alone” and will only attract the lowest level of the FiT.

Feed-in-Tariff scheme levels

*Note that these are the current solar Feed-in-Tariff levels which will be adjusted in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) from 1 April 2012

Feed-in-Tariff scheme payments

Payments from the solar Feed-in-Tariff are made quarterly and are tax-free to individuals, companies have to pay corporation tax on their profits as usual however. They are index-linked via the Retail prices Index (RPI) and guaranteed at the level when the project is commissioned for 25 years.

To qualify for the solar Feed-in-Tariff the products and your installer must both be accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). Ice Energy only uses accredited solar panels and has accredited installers.