- Installing solar panels could increase the value of your home by £11,500
- Despite the end of feed-in tariffs, you can still sell energy back to the grid
- Financing plans can help you to spread the cost of solar panel installation
When it comes to adding green technology upgrades to their properties, more often than not the first port of call for homeowners is solar panels.
Homes across the country have been fitted with photovoltaic cells, and there is little sign that uptake will stop.
In fact, solar panel installations have hit a seven-year high, with 161,494 panels installed on homes in 2023, increasing 44.6 per cent from the year before.
Since 2010, the cost of solar panels has tumbled massively, meaning that the technology is more accessible than ever.
Despite their apparent popularity, however, only just over four per cent of the UK’s 29 million homes have been fitted with solar technology.
We spoke to two green energy experts to shed light on whether solar panels are worth the investment.
How do solar panels work?
Solar panels harness radiation from the sun, turning it into electricity using a process called the photovoltaic effect.
‘When sunlight hits the silicon [panels],’ Scott Duncan, head of solar and storage at OVO told This is Money, ‘it causes the electrons in them to start moving around – this movement creates electricity in the form of a direct current, which is then converted into an alternating current.
Read more: ThisisMoney
