On Tuesday 29 September 2026, Sustainable Bucklebury held a solar information evening at Bucklebury Farm Park. We had an excellent turn out of approximately 40 people, including those helping give out information, who hopefully went away with a better understanding about solar installations. The evening was aimed to help people find out how renewable energy can reduce electricity bills while lowering carbon footprint, while giving real life examples of recent local installations.
The evening started with a series of presentations and case studies from Nathan Lau and Max Fogelman from Spirit Energy. Nathan and Max covered all the basic information on solar panels, battery installations, how the installation pieces together and how it produces electricity for your home. They then presented some case studies. Spirit Energy are a local solar company that have worked on homes in our parish.
We then had short presentations from two residents to give details of their installations, experiences, and how their systems for working for them from Stephen Walker and Graham Loader. Stephen's installation included a larger number of solar panels and a battery system along with details of electricity import and export costs to maximise returns. The battery allows homes to store energy from the panels that is not being used so that is can then be used later to reduce the money paid to your electricity supplier. Graham's system demonstrated the entry point for a roof mounted system with six solar panels and no battery. Without a battery any energy not used in the home is fed back to the grid and the household is paid for this electricity. However, money received for generation is generally less than the cost of buying electricity.
This was followed by a question and answer session from John Downe from the Hungerford Environmental Action Team, who is an independent solar expert.
From the sample installations demonstrated by our industry experts and residents it was demonstrated that it takes between 8 and 10 years to have paid back investments. Taking standard tariffs and no battery storage solar mostly saves money rather than earns it. Each unit you use yourself avoids buying one from the grid at around 25p, and spare units sold back typically earn about 12p to 15p on better export tariffs. Those relatively small savings can take 8 to 10 years to add up to the upfront cost.
We discussed the group buying Switch Together scheme (previously known as Solar Together), which is used by West Berkshire Council. Switch Together aims to simplify the process and obtain "bulk buy" pricing by matching households in an area with a supplier. In theory this should produce good pricing and give the additional protection of another layer to check your quotation and installation completion and make sure the installer has appropriate certification. The scheme can be used for solar panels, battery, and heat pump installations. Through the scheme you will still be dealing with one installer - so it is worth checking that supplier yourself before beginning any work.
Through our questions and answers we briefly discussed "plug-in solar", which is now available in the UK. Plug-in solar is a small kit of one or two panels, usually up to about 800W, with a built-in inverter that plugs into an ordinary socket and feeds your home's electricity directly. It is a cheap way to start producing your own solar power without a full installation. You can put your panels in a garden on a balcony or on a shed roof, and as it is plug-in you don't need an electrician or any installer. These systems can also be paired with a home battery so you can create your own DIY solar system, however these systems will produce far less than a fully installed roof based system.
Please note that Sustainable Bucklebury does not endorse one provider - our advice would be to get several quotes and check out reviews of providers from a trustworthy review website such as Trustpilot. Any solar installer should have current MCS certification and consumer code membership.
Thank you to Bucklebury Farm Park for hosting our event in an excellent venue and to all those who gave presentations and helped organise the event.
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