Homeowners across the country will be given grants and cheap loans to convert their homes to solar panels as part of government plans to hit its clean energy pledge by 2030 pledge.
Plans are being drawn to subsidise the costs of installing solar panels in homes across the country.
It will be paid through the government’s £6.6billion warm homes plan and is set to be allocated in next year’s spending review.
The plans, which are still under development, would see fuel-poor households be given upfront grants to install the equipment, the Times reports.
Meanwhile, richer households would be offered cheap government-backed loans to pay for the costs of the work.
They could then be paid through bills but at a lower annual cost than electricity charges.
It is also being considered increasing how much homeowners could make from ‘selling back’ unused electricity they generate to the grid in order to incentivise households to come forward.
At the moment, people can make 4.1p per kilowatt-hours (kWh) of power exported — a lot less than the average default electricity price of about 24p/kWh.
The scheme still needs to be approved by the Treasury and there are fears that this that previous plans have often been bureaucratic, are costly to roll out and have resulted in low uptake.
The government’s net zero transformation plan was previously cut from £28billion a year, put forward in opposition, to £15billion when it was feared that it would be unaffordable.
Senior government sources told the newspaper the solar initiative was a ‘critical element’ of the government’s clean energy plan, which would bring down bills.
They added that it was also vital to hit the government’s target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.
‘At the moment heat pumps cost more than boilers but can be as expensive to run because of the cost of electricity,’ they said. ‘Installing rooftop solar along with battery storage has the potential to change that financial calculation.’
Jess Ralston, the head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, called the scheme ‘a vital part of the government’s clean energy plan’ adding: ‘as solar power can be rapidly scaled up and for every rooftop installation you reduce the need on land — which is politically controversial’
She said its ‘critical’ to start the mass adoption of heat pumps as, she said, at the moment the problem with heat pumps is that they can be more expensive to buy than a boiler and have similar costs.
However, she added, put together with solar panels, and the heat pumps would be much cheaper to run.
A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: ‘We will set out our full plans to help millions more households benefit from clean home-grown power once the spending review has concluded.’