Plea to make key solar panel change to lower energy bills

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It continued: “Pressure on the wider grid would be reduced and the likely outcome would be a reduction in the country’s emissions too, in line with climate change targets.” Its signatories, among them Ecotricity chief executive Asif Rehmanwala and E.On Next director of residential newbuild Matthew Hart, also wrote: “The twin crises of high energy bills and climate change present this country with many challenges, but there are also a number of solutions that could be relatively easily implemented. “One of those solutions is the inclusion of solar energy on newbuild residential accommodation.” Mr Wilkinson said: “Following the shortest day of the year, it’s time the Government finally commits to a sunnier future.” He told the PA news agency: “One of the things that I think is just really, really obvious is that when we’re building new homes, they should be built to high standards of energy efficiency and that they should include renewable energy generation, because that’s good for the planet, but also, it’s really, really good for people’s bills. “We all know that we’ve had the energy bills crisis over the last few years and fuel bills for households remain stubbornly high, so it seems obvious that we should put solar panels on the roofs of houses, so those bills are going to be lower.” The MP for Cheltenham in Gloucestershire described adding solar panels to the tune of “a few thousand pounds” as “marginal” against the cost of building a property, which “pays back to the new homeowner within five or six years anyway, so it really is a win-win”. Lower energy bills would be the perfect gift not just for me, but for the nation.” A Government spokesperson said in an October press release that they “want solar panels on as many new homes as possible, because they are a vital technology to help cut bills for families, boost our national energy security, and help deliver net zero”.