Renewable Resources: How To Make Money With Them
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by: NathanJames | Total views: 31 | Word Count: 636
The main benefit of renewable resources is what they can do for the environment. Or rather, what they do not do to the environment. They do not create pollution like fossil fuels do, and they don't contribute to global warming. It is due to this that the UK government has incentivised them, which is why it is now possible to make money with things like solar energy.
Saving Money
The savings that you can make using renewable resources will be considered before we get on to the government incentives. These will still apply of course, it's just that you get more with the incentives available.
The focus is going to be on solar energy as that is what is most popular in terms of renewable energy. Most people have the necessary conditions to be able to install solar panels as it only requires that you have a roof they can fit on. Actually, the can also be ground mounted so there's that as well.
As energy prices continue to rise, the pure savings that you can make by using solar energy to generate electricity are getting larger. Even so though, they're not all that big, considering the cost of the installation.
All the savings have to be compared with the cost of the installation. If the installation costs more than the savings you're going to make, then it really makes no financial sense to use renewable energy. With solar panels, it would take around 25 years to pay off the cost of the installation through savings alone, and that is about how long a solar panel lasts for.
This explains, then, why before the government incentives, the uptake of solar energy was not particularly large. That has all changed now though, with the introduction of the feed in tariff.
Feed In Tariff
The government scheme which applies to renewable resources used to generate electricity is called the feed in tariff. How it works is that for every unit of electricity you produce with your solar panels, you get a certain amount of money. This is energy that you are also using, it's just that they are providing financial compensation for energy created in this way.
Governments all over the world are introducing feed in tariffs for this purpose because they want to reduce their carbon emissions. Indeed, the UK government has a specific target to make a significant reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2020. The reason for this is that they are concerned about the potential effects of global warming if we keep using fossil fuels as we have been.
By taking the feed in tariff in to account as well then, by how much does this improve the financial incentive for getting solar panels? Well, one way of looking at it is that instead of taking 25 years for you to make enough to equal the cost of the installation, it now only takes around 10 years.
With the time necessary to pay off the cost of the installation greatly reduced, that gives you time to actually make profits. And of course if you choose to sell your house before that time, then the solar panels are going to add a lot of value to it.
The Renewable Heat Incentive
The renewable heat incentive, which is going to be available soon, works in the same way as the feed in tariff. While the feed in tariff applies to electricity produced with renewable energy though, the renewable heat incentive applies to heat energy that you produce.
This is going to be available for things like solar thermal systems, as well as heat pumps. The two main heat pumps you can get are ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps, and they both work well at heating your water. They can also all provide the water for a central heating system if you have the appropriate type.
About the Author
If you'd like to find out additional info about solar energy, you are able to do so at renewable resources, where Harrison Morgan writes extra information on the issue. This is also the place to go if you do have an interest in receiving a free estimate for an installation.
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