Supermarket giant Tesco is to start selling solar panels in the UK according to the Timesonline today.

The UK Feed In Tariff is programmed to start on Thursday 1st April and expected to result in a substantial number of people starting to generate their own green electricity.  Under the scheme people installing renewable energy generators of under 5 Megawatts are to be paid fixed rates for the green electricity they produce and export to the grid.

Tesco has been gearing up to take advantage of this emerging market by stocking up on solar panels.  Tesco Executive director Lucy Neville-Rolfe told Timesonline: “Tesco has always led the way by bringing affordable green products to the mass market. With low-energy lightbulbs, we cut the price and demand went through the roof. Now we are making solar power mainstream by giving customers a simple, high-quality product at the right price.”

Price is however still the key problem with solar energy.  Despite people with new solar systems set to receive 36 p / kWh, a 3kW solar panel system costs around £16,000 (US $24,000) and this means a long payback period of 9 years plus.  Wind Energy Planning set out the Feed in Tariff rates to be paid for the different renewable energy technologies in the post earlier this year ‘Excitement over Green Energy Payment Rate‘.