Over 80% of UK public lack trust in solar energy firms & are unclear on the benefits of solar energy.
GreenFox Energy, the mission-led provider of home solar energy solutions, has today released the results of its 2023 ‘UK Solar Energy Sentiment Survey’, uncovering a worrying lack of consumer confidence in the UK’s solar installers and widespread confusion about the benefits of domestic solar power.
GreenFox Energy surveyed* over 2000 UK adults to better understand their awareness, attitudes and experiences in relation to home solar energy.
The headline results suggest that - left unaddressed - these challenges mean the UK will continue to be a ‘solar laggard’ with a rate of adoption running behind comparable nations.
Key survey findings include:
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Over 85% of people lack trust in solar energy installation firms - with only 13% claiming to feel a high level of trust
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Over 80% of the public say they don’t fully understand how solar energy works, with 15% saying they understand nothing at all about the subject
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A quarter of people surveyed significantly overestimated how much solar energy will cost to install in an average home
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Almost 20% think homeowners can’t make their money back from installing solar energy
Launching The UK Home Solar Energy Sentiment Survey, GreenFox Energy Co-Founder, Eddie Curran, said:
“At GreenFox we’re passionate about making solar energy work for all UK homeowners. Solar power’s significant benefits for the planet, for our country’s energy independence and for family budgets justify and demand three main changes:
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Firstly, there needs to be much greater effort from UK national and devolved governments to explain the benefits & practical realities of solar power to consumers.
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Secondly, house builders should be compelled to improve the quality and useability of the solar energy systems they install in new homes, as the current general standard of what is provided is poor, amounting to little more than a ‘box ticking’ exercise.
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Finally, the UK’s domestic solar energy engineering & installer community needs to dramatically raise its game as many fail to provide optimised system design and leave poorly configured equipment running unproductively. Moreover, many installers operating in the UK today aren’t MCS certified (the national industry accreditation scheme) meaning that their installations aren’t covered by equipment manufacturer’s warranties and their customers won’t be able to sell excess power ‘back to the grid’.
There are 13 million owner occupied houses in the UK - almost all of which can benefit from solar power - provided they receive the right advice and support. Around 12 million (over 90%) of those homeowners haven’t yet ‘seen the light’ and so are needlessly missing out on significant reductions in their energy bills, mainly because they lack confidence in their ability to make good decisions about solar energy and haven’t found the solar engineers who can expertly identity the right solution for them.”
Curran, a former EY consultant and IBM technologist, co founded GreenFox with Andrew Murphy, the former Chief Operations Officer of John Lewis Partnership.
Curran & Murphy were shocked by the inconsistencies they found when surveying the credentials and knowledge of a range of solar energy companies - concerns echoed by a recent Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) report.** As a result, they founded GreenFox with the intent to establish a new standard for domestic solar services in the UK. Their mission is to see 95%*** of the UK’s houses equipped with solar self-generation systems and do so by ensuring every homeowner has access to high quality advice, project management & installation services. Their belief, quite simply, is that there is a simple, smart and successful solar solution for almost every UK homeowner.
Murphy said: “While many people identify concerns about the cost or benefits of installing solar power as a major barrier for them, in reality that usually just means they haven’t managed to find a reliable and authoritative source of information, advice and system design. There is a huge difference between the quality of work and outcomes delivered by the average solar engineer and those who really understand the technology and how to design and operate it”
“Negative customer experiences - where solar energy companies have over-promised and under-delivered, or left customers stranded with poorly configured systems they don’t know how to get good results from - undermine general public confidence in solar power.”
At GreenFox we have an industry leading Customer Net Promoter Score of 9.3 and are able to improve system performance (and therefore savings) by 20- 25% compared to non-GreenFox solar installations.
References
GreenFox Energy Solutions (SC758486) greenfoxenergy.co.uk
*2,018 nationally representative UK Adults were surveyed, by Opinion Matters, between 12th & 15th May 2023. The survey was designed and commissioned by GreenFox Energy Solutions Ltd. Further details may be provided, upon request, at the discretion of GreenFox energy.
**CMA (May 2023) https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/consumer-protection-in-green-heating-and-insulation-sector
***5% being the estimated proportion of UK houses unsuitable due to conservation, power supply or sun-shading issues.
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