SOME of us are already enjoying the benefits of cheaper, greener electricity, and most of all we are wallowing in the luxury of being paid by the Government to generate it!

The window of opportunity is still open for anyone who wants to join the growing band of those who have solar panels on their homes or businesses – don’t be the one who finds the window has closed by the time they get to it.

The Government has set up a scheme to enable private householders and businesses to obtain a feed-in tariff, by having photo voltaic solar powered panels fitted to their premises, usually on the roof.

The private householder enjoys a feed-in payment of 41.3 pence for every kilowatt hour of time of production, thus saving the usual cost of that electricity.

On top of this the Government pays three pence per unit for half the units generated. All payments are index linked and tax free.

There is talk of the payments being reduced for new customers in the near future, but all existing customers have their payments guaranteed for 25 years.

The Government has issued average figures that they expect a system of 10 x 185 watt panels to produce, when fitted in a suitable location.

These figures are an average for the whole country, but it should be remembered that we live in one of the sunniest areas, so our production should be well above average. I have this particular array of panels fitted to my roof and I am finding the production figures exceeding the estimates by approximately 50 per cent.

L A R TIBBLE, Weymouth Bay Avenue, Weymouth