Farmers at the Farm Energy event in Peterborough were told not to be too disheartened by the solar panels cuts, as renewable energy offers a viable long-term solution.

The government’s decision to cut solar Feed-in tariff rates was met with disappointment from the industry, and it’s believed that there’ll be a number of job cuts to support the changes. Returns on investment will take longer, with annual returns of 9-11% expected.

And speaking at the Farm Energy event, consultant Peter Fane said not all was lost. He said: “Don’t be fooled into thinking renewable energy is a flash in the pan. It is a long-term investment opportunity and FiTs are only one of a number of reasons for investing, so don’t get hung up on the recent cuts.”

Of course, the high FiT rates were a big incentive for domestic and commercial installations, with a guraenteed fixed payment of 43.3p/kWh for 25 years. However, just replacing electricity with a renewable energy source is a money-saver in itself.

Over the next six years gas is expected to rise 60% in cost. So the more electricity you generate yourself, the better your bills will be in the future. This point was illustrated by Damian Baker, the managing director of RenEnergy. He showed that a 50kW system could be repaid in nine years and generate £258,000 in total. This was based on electricity prices rising 5% each year.

Mr Baker said: “FiTs have done exactly what they were meant to do by bringing the knowledge and industry into this country. Prior to the Feed-in Tariff launch, it took 15 years to install about 30MW in the UK. Recently the industry has been installing that amount [of new PV capacity] every month and it’s looking like 500MW of PV will be installed by the end of this year.”

Renewable energy products are also environmentally friendly as they don’t produce carbon dioxide when generating electricity. These technologies such as solar panels, heat pumps and wind turbines, directly replace fossil fuels as an alternative way of generating energy.