Monthly renewable’s roundup

Each month we post a roundup of what we’ve seen in the renewables industry during the past four weeks.

Four weeks of FIT fueled frenzy

The FIT announcement caused a spike in solar panel leads early in November, and subsequent publicity helped to keep numbers high. Enquiries started to slow in the second half of the month and the first few days of December have continued this trend. The decline is partly due to informing all web site visitors that the 43p tariff is no longer available.

This has also led to us filtering out a higher-than-usual number of “tyre kickers”, those curious folk who just want to talk about solar, rather than act. We will continue to prevent these enquiries from reaching you.

It is extremely difficult to predict how December will fare; any comparisons with last year are swallowed up by the huge growth in the industry during 2011.

However, from talking to hundreds of solar panel installers during the past month, the overwhelming consensus is that solar is still an extremely good investment, there is still a huge amount of interest from the public, and the market is now in a good position to grow during 2012 and beyond.

Thermal grows as PV slows

Public interest in solar thermal grew during November to the highest we’ve seen all year. The FiT publicity is undoubtedly the cause, but again, much of this ‘interest’ is people looking for information rather than quotes, and these are filtered out before being sent as leads.

However, increased public awareness in thermal can only be a good thing. We usually that find a surge in interest translates to a surge in demand (i.e. leads) approximately 4-6 weeks later. We’re likely to see strong demand for thermal in January and a possible rush to claim a premium payment before April.

We’re also seeing a lot of interest in solar thermal leads from PV installers. Thermal and heat pumps are definitely the one’s to watch.

 

Demand for heat pumps hots up

We started generating heat pump leads earlier this year, and numbers were slow at first. However, thanks to a combination of increased public awareness in renewables, and some clever marketing wizardry, we’re now generating more than 100 heat pump leads a week, and this figure continues to rise.

Just like solar panels, we make people fully aware of the costs and qualify their time frame to ensure each enquiry is genuine. We also capture the lead’s fuel source and a description of their requirements. Remember, these are people who’ve initiated the search for quotes themselves, and so the propensity to purchase is high.

 

Insulation enquiries up on 2010

Demand for insulation grants has remained high throughout 2011, particularly during the summer, mainly fueled by ever increasing energy bills. An unseasonably warm November hasn’t put people off from getting their home insulated before Winter, and as temperatures drop in December, the next rush is only just around the corner.