Future Climate’s review of consumer experience of solar PV systems
This research covered households using solar PV across England and Wales, with a balanced sample across the different regions. It considers users in terms of when they had the technology installed, to see how the consumer experience has changed. The overall sample size was 647, which included 609 online surveys and 38 telephone surveys. The survey was designed to be comparable with the key elements of the consumer research of Keeping FiT in 2011, as well as incorporating issues that had arisen more recently. Results are broadly positive and general satisfaction is high; there are very few areas in which solar PV users are explicitly dissatisfied. However, satisfaction is generally falling over time across most areas of the solar PV customer journey in light of: (a) a perceived lack of clear information on EPCs, planning issues and carbon emissions reductions, and (b) a perceived lack of information on how to check their system is working correctly and how to maximise the electricity generated by it.