Consumers to be paid for exporting excess renewable energy to the grid
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The Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) places a legal obligation on UK energy suppliers with more than 150,000 customers – covering more than 90% of the retail market – to introduce export tariffs by 1st January 2020.
Under the scheme, homes and businesses that have installed solar panels, wind turbines or other forms of small-scale renewable energy generation, with a capacity of up to 5MW, will be paid for each unit of electricity they sell to the grid, which will be tracked by their smart meters.
The scheme has been designed to continue to grow the small-scale renewables export market by supporting local generation and is expected to help bridge the gap to a smarter and more efficient energy system, when combined with technologies like smart meters and battery storage.
The cost of residential solar panels are now more than 50% cheaper than in 2011.
