When is the right time to buy Solar Panels & Batteries?
We have all experienced the huge price increases across the energy sector, and if you have been lucky enough to secure a fixed rate for a few months or into 2023, then be prepared for the rates as they have significantly jumped.
Callidus have been installing Solar systems across England and Wales for the past 12 years, and we have never known it to be so busy with consumers trying to do what they can to escape the rising costs. This has put major pressure on the supply chain and has led to increased costs of products and availability of products. A product that we sold in April 22 for £1,100 the price has gone up over 55% in recent months and would now be over £1,710. This is direct supplier increased pricing and far more than the costs that are talked about in the media.
Currently, with the global demand for renewable energy, it doesn’t look like this situation will improve anytime soon. We have a global demand to reduce fossil fuel consumption, and this will need to be replaced with Solar, Wind and Water renewable products. Solar PV is by far the quickest and easiest to install in most circumstances; it is also permitted development for most of us, meaning no planning requirements. The world is moving to more electric products, including electric cars, and this will simply put more pressure on the renewable sector as residential and commercial customers try and reduce their costs by installing Solar panels, batteries and other energy saving products.
All of the unknowns around supply and rising energy costs mean our customers often ask us, ‘When should we buy our solar panel systems’, and this is really quite simple for us to answer. We can only use the information that we already have, as none of us have a crystal ball to predict where this is all going. Still, we do know that Callidus customers who bought a system at the beginning of 2022 paid around 35% less than a customer today and, at that point, also paid less for their energy. Many of those customers have already come back to us and said that given what they have paid and the rising costs of electricity, their Callidus Solar and Battery system is likely to fully pay for itself in less than 4 years.
Commercial electricity costs are not protected like the price cap in place for the domestic market until April 2023. Callidus’s existing commercial clients have reported rates as high as £1.15 /kWh or unit of electricity. This could be a 600% increase compared to prices a year ago. These costs are simply not sustainable for many companies, and we are doing all we can to support the commercial business sector across England. These costs do have a huge impact on the return on investment of a large commercial system, and we are now seeing the total payback as low as 1.3 years.
The answer to the question ‘When is the right time to buy Solar Panels & Batteries?’ is fairly simple for us in the market of unknown numbers. The people who buy it start saving straight away, and the evidence is clear. Energy is unlikely ever to go as low as it was before the 300% increase we witnessed, and although product prices may have gone up by 55%, it is still a lot less than the cost of energy increase. Solar was a viable product before all of these increased costs, and Callidus installed around 250 systems a year which is now around 12 a week as we have increased our teams to cope with higher demand. Get your free quote today or call us on 01626 905454 for more information.
