Would You Buy a Labour Policy From Lidl's Middle Aisle?

This is Ed Miliband's response to the Iran-triggered energy crisis: an impoverished public buying plug-in solar panels from the supermarket

We have been waiting for the UK Government’s response to the Iran crisis, which has sent energy prices upwards. Secretary of State for (against) Energy Security and (only for) Net Zero Ed Miliband constantly claims that his agenda is precisely what’s needed to protect households from the consequences of far-away wars, tyrannies and global supply crunches. And today it came: this morning, Miliband’s department announced that “within months” you will be able to buy “plug-in solar panels” from supermarkets while you’re doing your weekly shopping.

“More households will be helped to save money on bills through plug-in solar panels as the Government vows to go further and faster on clean energy in response to conflict in the Middle East,” explained a press release on the DESNZ website. “Retailers like Lidl and Amazon, alongside manufacturers such as EcoFlow, are working with Government to enable them to be brought to the UK market.”

Plug-in solar is pretty much as it sounds – a solar panel that pushes power into your home’s electrical supply through a plug, rather than takes it out. Sounds great right? There’s just one problem – there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip. There is a reason that electrical power installations typically require expertise to install. Encouraging people to install solar panels on their properties out of sheer desperation is going to cause an increase in accidents at height, electrocutions and fires. As simple as it sounds, installing mains voltage equipment on the periphery of a home will require ladders, cables of the correct specification, holes in walls and iterative trips to the panel, to either trace faults or better align the panel with the source of its energy. Each of these carries a non-zero risk of tragic accident.

Some might reply that the solution is to hire an electrician to ensure a safe installation. Sure. So then, why sell them at supermarkets? Moreover, this will then undermine what is being pitched as an economic solution to a supply problem. A quick search of the internet reveals that an 800 watt plug-in solar PV system costs of the order of £500, and a 1 kW system is a little more at £600. The latter – from eBay – advises there’s “no need for approved electrician to sign off”. Let’s take these as data points. Solar PV farms in the UK typically produce 10% of their rated capacity over the course of a year. This means that the £500 0.8kW unit will produce 700 kilowatt hours of power in a year, and the 1kW unit will produce 876 kWh. The current Ofgem price cap is 27.69 pence per kWh for electricity. This means that at best, the smaller unit will save £193 a year, and the larger unit save £242. Adding an electrician into the mix will take at least a year’s worth of ‘savings’, added to the two and a half years that the units take to ‘pay back’ on the investment.