The Money Saving Expert team have written a new updated guide to “Free Solar Panels”.

Full details at http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels.

They give 3 main routes:

• Buy panels for £8,000-£14,000. If you have cash, on top of electricity savings the Govt’s feed-in tariff scheme could pay back double your spend. Eg, a £12,000 system could net £25,750 over 25 years (see How To Buy Solar Panels).
• Free panels, but you don’t keep ‘feed-in’ tariff. If you’re in England, Wales or, in a few cases, Scotland, some companies fit panels for free, but they then keep the big-money feed-in gain. You just keep the £70 electricity saving, though prices are predicted to rise massively over 20 years, so the saving could jump.
• Try free then buy. An interesting new option from E.on.
  You get free panels, but it lets you buy ’em out, you can do it at a reasonable price to gain the feed-in tariff.