Monday 2 July 2018
London mayor expands group buying solar scheme
Sadiq Khan has expanded a scheme that allows people in London to group-buy solar panels at a discounted rate.
Eight further councils have signed up to the mayor’s ‘Solar Together’ initiative following a successful pilot earlier this year.
Camden, Haringey, Havering, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Newham, Waltham Forest and Westminster will now join Brent, Ealing, Merton and Sutton councils in helping households and businesses buy solar panels at a reduced cost.
Householders can register online to become part of the scheme - administered by group-buying expert iChoosr - for free.
There were nearly 4,000 registrations for the first phase, with SolarCentury – together with IKEA – winning the contract with an offer of an average 35% of savings on the cost of the solar installations.
Pre-vetted UK solar suppliers can participate in the next auction on 22nd August
The initiative will support the mayor’s target of generating 1GW of electricity through solar in London by 2030.
Mr Khan said: “Solar offers an increasingly low cost source of energy for Londoners and we need to speed up its roll out across the capital. City Hall are doing all we can through our new Solar Action Plan but more needs to be done at a national level.
“The government urgently needs to outline the future form of financial support for solar and how it intends to seize the opportunity to provide low cost, reliable and clean power.”
Estimates suggest reaching the goal of making London a zero carbon city by 2050 will require 20 times more solar energy generation equipment to be installed than what is currently in place.
