Homes signed up for schemes to sell solar energy back to the grid have more than tripled
UK households received record sums for energy generated by rooftop solar panels in 2023, according to the regulator Ofgem.
Nearly £30.7m was distributed to homeowners under schemes offering households revenue to sell energy from their rooftop panels back to the grid.
This compared with £7.2m the previous year. In total in 2023, 283.1 gigawatt hours (GWh) worth of electricity was exported against 77.3 GWh in the year to March 2023.
Under the scheme, households that generate their own energy from solar panels or other renewable sources can sell any excess power back to the grid through the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme. People looking to sell their extra energy back to a supplier must sign up for a SEG tariff.
Ofgem said the power exported back to the grid from rooftop solar panels amounted to sufficient energy to power just over 88,000 typical homes for a year.
Roof integrated solar panels (Image: Tanjent)
Octopus had the highest number of registrations under the Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) scheme, which provides options for small-scale generators to be paid for exporting low-carbon electricity to the grid.
Octopus registered 197,109, accounting for 69.5 per cent of the annual total. Following Octopus, registration numbers were highest for British Gas (21,350) and Bulb (18,628).
Ofgem said since the scheme started in 2020, £39m has been paid to SEG generators for the export of 342 GWh of low-carbon electricity to the grid.
Read more: inews
