London Mayor extends group-buying solar scheme

Participants of the Solar Together programme can register to buy solar panels at a reduced cost from suppliers by using a group-buying model.

More than 1,100 households and businesses from Brent, Ealing, Merton and Sutton accepted the offer for the first phase, which was delivered by SolarCentury and Ikea. The first phase provided an average saving of 35% on the cost of solar installations.

The scheme will now be rolled out across a further eight councils, including Camden, Haringey, Havering, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Newham, Waltham Forest and Westminster.

Khan said: “I’m delighted to launch the second phase of Solar Together London. This will offer even more Londoners the opportunity to buy and install solar panels for their homes and small businesses at a significant saving.

“Solar offers an increasingly low-cost source of energy for Londoners and we need to speed up its roll out across the capital.”

The second phase will be administered by group-buying expert iChoosr. An auction between pre-vetted UK solar PV suppliers will take place on 22 August, and from 10 September, registered households will receive a personalised offer from the winning supplier.

The announcement was welcomed by the Solar Trade Association’s advocacy and new markets director Leonie Greene: “This fantastic, practical leadership from the Mayor of London, with now over a third of London councils, will enable thousands of savvy Londoners to install high quality solar at a competitive price,” Greene said.

“Solar Together London genuinely empowers Londoners to do their bit to spread solar across the capital’s roofs. This technology is so important to scale up fast if we are to tackle climate change and clean up the air we breathe.”

Energy for Londoners

City Hall is aiming for a gigawatt of solar power to be generated in the capital by 2030, as part of a wider 2050 vision to make London a zero-carbon city.

The scheme forms part of the Mayor’s Energy for Londoners programme, which aims to cut energy bills and deliver low-carbon energy across homes and workplaces in the capital.

Earlier this year, the London Mayor pledged funding for fuel-poor homes alongside a £10bn commercial boiler scrappage scheme in a suite of new measures aimed at delivering cleaner, affordable energy across the capital.

Alongside the new funding for fuel-poor homes, the Mayor will tender for the delivery of an energy supply company for London, aiming to offer fairer energy bills to Londoners. This will sit next to a new Energy Leap pilot scheme which will refurb 10 homes installing insulating, solar panels, heat pumps and other measures from this summer.

The Mayor will also help public and private bodies to build large-scale heat networks, using local sources like waste heat from the Tube, though a £3.5m decentralised energy enabling project.

George Ogleby