your article does not mention the "heat store" the latest german technology that allows heat generated to be stored for night time and next day use to pre-feed the central heating system of all boiler types and supply domestic hot water. www .genesis-solar.co.uk Keith Bramall Sheffield,

keith bramall, stocksbridge, yorkshire

Most readers seem to see the faults in this programme.
what we can do is:- insulate, use heat pumps, use sensible cars, use trains not planes, and go for the most efficient low-carbon elecriticity generation which ,sorry, is nuclear..

stephen bull, fontes, france

Factually wrong! Pilot schemes apart, net-metering has been as rare as hen's teeth in the UK. This greedy government has been worried about the consequential VAT losses and have wasted 11 years before making this welcome move. German homes generates 200 times as much as UK and get proper grants too.

Steve Buckel, Braunau-am-Inn, Austria

If the government want large scale use of greener products they should offer larger grants.

Or Brown should offer grants for cavity wall & loft insulation rather than talking tosh about so called green technology that takes a lifetime to pay back.
Its just spin to lift Browns popularity.

Alistar, Tamworth, UK

"They will be able to sell back surplus electricity at premium prices to the national grid."
Yeah, right!! I'd be lucky if I had enough energy to make a cup of tea.
Bring on the nuclear power stations before the lights go out.

Tony Ford, Stockport, England

This is all good news on the energy front. Home owners who take advantage of the incentives should be proud of themselves. Their decisions to install renewable energy generators in their home will make a differece towards solving the pollution problems of the planet earth.

Jim Wills, Brisbane, Australia

Hi

We installed a solar water heater in Feb and we haven't had to use our oil boiler since march. It won't be full free hot water but think 4-6 month a year will be. Also just put a 1kw wind turbine in. We run all out low energy lighting in our 5 bed house backed up with a small solar charger

Ed, Malton, Yorkshire

Dont confuse global warming and peak oil. Warming would be ignored if it didn't coincide. A rising oil price is the inevitable consequence of rising demand, dwindling reserves and the need to use the finite oil supply to underwrite a changeover to other forms of energy BEFORE it runs out. Duh!

Richard, Rushden, UK

Domestic windmills are a waste of space. Tests I have seen of several 400 watt machines concluded that they were noisy in a stiff breeze and delivered 40 watts average at best, enough to run a digi-box. Note the silence on grants since the first flurry when installers were springing up everywhere.

Graham, St.Austell, UK

Dear British Public,
Please see this plainly ridiculous "initiiative" for what it is. A politically motivated complete waste of time. Nobody in their right mind would invest in photo-voltaic technology in the UK given its current captial cost on a per kilowatt basis.

GMT - FIET Elec Eng

Matthew Taylor, Brisbane, Australia

Hey Paul Owens, Novato - When we've got our 30 - 40 nuclear power station you sugest, can we bury the nuclear waste in the USA because we certainly don't want it here.

john lazenby, Llangadog, uk

I don't understand why more money is not spent on insulation. I have read that over 9 million houses could be fitted with cavity wall insulation. Think about the energy saved if all those 9 million homes were fitted with cavity wall insulation?

John S. Knight, sheffield, england

The more incentives the better. With oil at present prices we need alternative infrastructure in place.

simon, Battersea, London,

If these solar panels and their like were more efficient it might make sense ,until then the government should put more money into the research and development of these new technologys if they are ever to become a viable alternative to current power production

j keane, Stockport, England

A waste of time and money built on the back of climate hysteria.
You cant stop climate change, it's constantly in flux and your little windmills and woodburning stoves wont change that universal constant.

Phill, The Wirral, England

Why do people get so upset about wind farms?

They are a short term alternative to fossil fuel and fission. The impact they'll have on our countryside is nothing over the next 1000 years when compared to the legacy of either of the above.

These selfish people are killing my country.

J Williams, Bucks, UK

Don't see this working, the payback times for these devices is totally unrealistic some you wont make the money back in your lifetime. These devices are really only for the altruistic. In cities wind turbines will generate very little electricity.

Stephen, St. Ives, England

Just Brown posturing. Domestic solar power currently has a ridiculous pay back period. What would be required is not buy-back of surplus electricity but massive up-front grants. Much more sensibly we should wait till domestic solar power becomes easily affordable and a no-brainer.

Paul Freeman, London, England

I find it amazing the cost and effort Britain proposes to invest in doing this. A perfectly tried, minimally invasive and proven solution already exists. Build 30 - 40 nuclear power plants and save the countryside!!

Paul Owens, Novato, United States

All the alternatives have been struggling because oil/coal is still affordable, despite it being taxed highly. I think the price might be different if we knew the oil reserve reality.

Normally they would add more taxes, but then we have a right cheap fuel don't we!

Tony, Belfast,

we econmise by using less energy gas electric and the cost goes up we use less again and the price still goes up our savings goto fatter profits and taxation by the goverment of the day and will lead to have and have nots poor is poor rich is rich

b clarke, cardiff, wales

Hmmm. Me thinks the guys who fit Solar Panels are much akin the guys who sell Double Glazing, and the guys who now sell Home information packs.
Solar Heating panels cost more to maintain than the cost of not having installed them at all. Trust me, I was suckered into buying them some years ago.

raymog, Forest Row, UK

This will be a diaster. We will subsidise inefficient technology and will crowd out effective new technology. This will impose a significant financial burden on the UK, and it will not achieve its objective. This strategy is due to lobbying by a number of vested interest and political ignorance.

Mark Horn, Bourne, UK