Poorer households could cut their energy bills by a quarter if solar panels were installed on their rooftops, a report has found.
However, the upfront costs mean that those who stand to benefit most from decreased energy bills are prevented from getting panels installed, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
Economists behind the research have called for the government to consider offering means-tested grants or loans to cover those costs and ensure poorer households are given a fair price for any excess energy produced that is then sold back to the grid.
Fuel-poor families, of which there are 3.6 million in the UK, are defined as those who spend more than one-tenth of their disposable income on energy bills. The report said the savings from rooftop solar panels could reduce their energy bills by 24%. It added that a successful rollout of the panels could lift 1.2 million people out of fuel poverty, as well as helping to decarbonise the UK’s electricity system.
According to the research, a family with a 3kW solar panel could save as much as £440 a year.
The report noted that a 3kW solar panel cost about £6,500, putting it out of reach for low-income households, three in five of whom have less than £1,000 in savings. These high costs mean just 8% of UK households have solar panels.
Zachary Leather, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Rooftop solar panels can cut poor households’ energy bills by around a quarter and their returns compare well with other bill-cutting measures. But despite this win-win scenario, too few families, particularly in poorer areas, are getting them installed.
“The government should include a new means-tested support scheme for solar panels in the upcoming warm homes plan. This could really get the ‘rooftop revolution’ up and running and ensure that the consumer benefits from this net zero transition aren’t just hogged by richer households.”
The authors noted that reduced government support in recent years had stalled the uptake of solar panels. In 2015, more solar panels were installed in the poorest areas (35%) than the richest (31%). However, in that year, the then prime minister, David Cameron, cut subsidies for solar installation, meaning that by 2023 panels were more than twice as likely to be installed in the richest neighbourhoods as the poorest ones.
The Guardian recently revealed that the government was considering making solar panels optional on new-build homes in its new building standards, rather than mandatory.
A separate study by the RSPB, also released on Thursday, showed solar farms could provide biodiversity benefits in areas with arable farms. The research by the charity and the University of Cambridge found that – hectare for hectare – solar farms situated in East Anglia contained a greater number of bird species and overall number of individuals than surrounding arable land.
Those solar farms, which were managed for nature and had hedgerows around the edges and no grass cutting, supported more birds than those that were constantly sheep-grazed, found the report, which is published in the journal Bird Study.
The highest abundance of threatened red- and amber-listed bird species (such as corn bunting, yellowhammer and linnet) was in the solar farms that were managed for nature, and was significantly higher than in both surrounding arable land and in the solar sites that were grazed and did not contain hedgerows.
