Leaving renewables for the time being.

[Earthstore]

Hi all, just to let you know, well those of you who are left on here that is, that I also have decided to give up on renewables for a while anyway.
It is such a shame, with all the time, effort and money that you put into a business only to have it taken away from you.

I am pleased that I managed to have quite a few quality installs completed for customers and that they are all working well, so I have achieved something.

Renewables, or should I say Alternative energy will be the future, but sadly the Government and the energy providers just do not want it, why should they, if all their incomes are going to drop because people are producing their energy needs for less.

The whole politics thing really stinks, it is rotten from the core, I, as have many have followed and tried to work with all the ever changing rules, when they write 58 page documents that still do not cover all the facts, and the vital information they do use could be written on the back of a smoke packet, and when questioned about it they just refer you back to the said document.

They should all be totally ashamed, but I guess that is politics for you, a huge amount of people that are vastly overpaid and have not got a clue what things are really like.

I have resurrected my old business, so I am Ok, my bills are being paid, but I am sure that some may not be so fortunate.

I will still drop in from time to time to give some advise if I can, but do not ask me what the current rate is for FIT's because I have not got a clue.

Unlike Ploughcroft, I can walk away with my head held high, I did my bit for the planet, but not at the expense of others.

 

[Gavin A]

sorry to hear this.

fwiw your post motivated me to just fire off an email to Hillary Benn, a local MP who's shown a fair degree of interest, and knows the subject from his time at DEFRA among other things. We had a meeting with him last year when the FIT cuts had been announced, so I thought some follow up was in order, and I've suggested he ask Caroline Flint to ask for a parliamentary debate on the issue, and potentially try to get the next cut delayed for 6 months in light of the ridiculously low install rates at the moment.

 

[finchy]

That's such a shame Earth store ! I wish you all the best. As I said before I now treat this very much as a hobby and fund a lot of my time spent and costs out my own pocket.

I just hope we're not left with the cowboys, but I'm sure they will be on the next gravy train...green deal ...hmmm

Its not the government now its the general public conception (Greg did his job). That has been ruined and will take a lot of positive PR to get there.

 

[SRE]

Good luck Earthstore, we're not going the same way yet, but the writing is on the wall. If things don't pick up in the Spring we'll be moving onto other prospects. I'm sure you'll be back in renewables, it's just a matter of time ....

 

[solarsavings]

Good luck ES.

 

[malcolmsanford]

I'm sure there are quite a few PV guys on here that already understand my views on PV and I won't drag that into.

I like the others guys would like to wish ES the best and hope that he can move on from here. It is a shame to see guys who have invested heavily not only money but time into something to see it disappear.

Unfortunately PV is not the first and I doubt it would be the last.

 

[grandfortune]

Good luck for the future mate :wink5:

 

[pvman]

All the best for the future

Tom

 

[dansk]

All the best Earth Store - good luck for the future.

 

[babba]

Good luck mate. Its a tough one at the moment. They talk about boosing the economy by pumping millions into the building trade and kill another industry that was thriving ? O and the future is Gas. The GREENEST Government EVER ?

 

[Eco Deal]

Good luck mate please come back and see us ! you given us all great advice ... another great installer lost to greag barker and the DECC

 

[TedM]

Kevin, sorry to hear you have had to leave the world of PV but glad that you have other work to fall back on.

 

[sedgy34]

best of luck pal, what is your business you have resurected

 

[sbrown2]

Sorry to here that ES. But can you or anybody give me an update as to where Solar, Heatpumps, Green Deal, RHI are. I have been off the forum for while but my partners are just preparing to renew MCS membership and I for one do not want to invest if appears the green deal is going to be a "pup". Any advice would be welcome.

 

[moggy1968]

shame to hear your leaving, but not too suprising. I think this business is unsurvivable for all except the cowboys now.
I'm keeping it ticking along by closing down my electrical company and moving the general electrical work into the PV company. I've got some other, non PV, irons in the fire which will keep the PV company running so we can just slip in and out of the market as we need to.

 

[solarsavings]

Moggy, You can't have meant your post to read as it does surely:crazy:

 

[moggy1968]

which bit did you mean?

 

[solarsavings]

I think this business is unsurvivable for all except the cowboys now

​

[will keep the PV company running so we can just slip in and out of the market as we need to.

​

​

​

I'm sure you're not a cowboy;-)

 

[moggy1968]

no, I think the meaning is clear. It's not survivable for us in it's current form. My other businesses mean we can stay in the background should it change in the future and to pick up any work thats there but as a full time business, main business, or even decent part time business PV is now non viable for us.

 

[jason121]

This is from the segen web site
SEGEN IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A HIGHER THAN USUAL VOLUME OF ORDERS. TO ENSURE YOUR ORDER IS DISPATCHED WHEN YOU WANT IT, PLEASE PLACE ORDERS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE AND ARRANGE PROMPT PAYMENT.
some installers are still busy

 

[Gavin A]

This is from the segen web site
SEGEN IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A HIGHER THAN USUAL VOLUME OF ORDERS. TO ENSURE YOUR ORDER IS DISPATCHED WHEN YOU WANT IT, PLEASE PLACE ORDERS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE AND ARRANGE PROMPT PAYMENT.
some installers are still busy

preemptive warning IMO in anticipation of a last minute rush - they didn't seem particularly busy when processing our orders last week.

 

[sedgy34]

That could be a carrot

 

[balbecdaze]

or possibly a customer response to supply price increases? (i'm sure I read a comment on a thread recently here to back this up but I can only find a reference to footfall in a woodburnng stove shop with a quick search)

 

[Noshocks]

Wholesaler is telling me they are very quiet, this is with a tarriff reduction in a short while. December and January have always been quiet, so its looking more than a little bleak at present. Next year it may pick upin second quarter, if you can hang on that long, and arent dependent on PV or renewables alone.

Just glad I dident throw money at technologies relying on the RHI or green deal, need as much reserves as possible at the moment, poor government policy and a reccesion equals perfect storm.

 

[SolarRoofSols]

This is from the segen web site
SEGEN IS CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING A HIGHER THAN USUAL VOLUME OF ORDERS. TO ENSURE YOUR ORDER IS DISPATCHED WHEN YOU WANT IT, PLEASE PLACE ORDERS AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE AND ARRANGE PROMPT PAYMENT.
some installers are still busy

That why the price of yingli 250w panes has come down by £5 over the weekend then lol.

Hopefully I hope that some installers are busy - we aren't and have been advertising!

 

[Noshocks]

I dont see any point in advertising at the moment to be honest, there are only a few hundred installs being done each week, that is a small pie, to get a slice you would never compete with the advertisiing budget of the big boys.

Its word of mouth and other income streams, ie house bashing for me. Give Joe public a chance to digest electricity prices, the market will return eventually, solar makes more financial sense day by day.

 

[sedgy34]

need to perceviere still do flyers as we are cant just sit and wait for the phone to ring

 

[sedgy34]

whilst its been slow we are now registered with chas and constructionline hope that helps our cause

 

[Noshocks]

Absolutely Sedgy you hav to do what you can to survive, I just dont think its wise throwing resources at solar when there is such low demand at the moment, just my opinion.

 

[moggy1968]

also, with the margins being so tight unless you can stack em high sell em cheap in sizeable volumes then the budget just isn't there.

If your going to spend money on marketing there's got to be margin there to pay for it

 

[SRE]

unless you can stack em high sell em cheap in sizeable volumes then the budget just isn't there.

even doing that leaves you with no contingency and potentially big liabilities if anything goes wrong. Not for me I'm afraid and marketing is a no,no until Feb for me.

 

[MCS Renewables]

We ran an advert most of last week in the free newspapers ( Advertisers) . It was headed " Are you worried abour Rising Energy Costs ?".
It went on to promote solar technologies.
It cost us £1200 to cover Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Dorchester, Purbecks, Wimborne.

By last Thursday we had sold four PV systems and two thermal systems.
We sold another two PV over the weekend.
We sold one yesterday and one this morning.
We still have nine surveys to go this week .

If you take the £1200 outlay and divide up between the 12 orders we are getting leads at £100 each. (assuming we sell no more).
Compared to lead sales companies this figure is high but they are only ours.

As these free papers hang around for weeks we may get lots more interest.

We no longer sell on the feed in tariff and focus purely on the energy saving.
A £6000 four kW solar PV system pays for itself in fifteen years in energy savings alone, based on current rates.
There is a 9% rise coming and the EST claim energy prices double every seven years.
We then tell them about the FIT payments, tax free and index linked, and refer to it as a bonus.

The energy price increases were a sales opportunity .................

 

[Ian-LS]

We ran an advert most of last week in the free newspapers ( Advertisers) . It was headed " Are you worried abour Rising Energy Costs ?".
It went on to promote solar technologies.
It cost us £1200 to cover Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Dorchester, Purbecks, Wimborne.

By last Thursday we had sold four PV systems and two thermal systems.
We sold another two PV over the weekend.
We sold one yesterday and one this morning.
We still have nine surveys to go this week .

If you take the £1200 outlay and divide up between the 12 orders we are getting leads at £100 each. (assuming we sell no more).
Compared to lead sales companies this figure is high but they are only ours.

As these free papers hang around for weeks we may get lots more interest.

We no longer sell on the feed in tariff and focus purely on the energy saving.
A £6000 four kW solar PV system pays for itself in fifteen years in energy savings alone, based on current rates.
There is a 9% rise coming and the EST claim energy prices double every seven years.
We then tell them about the FIT payments, tax free and index linked, and refer to it as a bonus.

The energy price increases were a sales opportunity .................

That's brilliant. Its what I've been saying to people for a while, it costs 50% of what it did last year you'll protect yourself from rising energy bills and on top of this you'll get a nice income from the Feed in Tariff and export payments

 

[Worcester]

Not only that you're actually better off than your mate on 43.3p becasue you've got all that extra money that he spent still in your bank.
Because of this:
1) It is a better investment now than it was last year
2) A lot more people can afford it.


Paradigm shift