A quarter of households would install photovoltaic panels to cut their energy bills if the government provided the appropriate incentives, according to a survey.
The study of 750 households established that though the public has a positive attitude to
solar panels, few homes have installed it because of lack of support.
While 91 per cent of respondents said they would consider installing solar panels, just two per cent of homes actually had them already, discovered Mark Watson of the graduate school for the environment at the Centre for Alternative Technologies.
"Photovoltaic systems are one of the easiest renewable energy technologies to integrate in towns and cities, as they can be installed on roofs and building facades with minimal intrusion. And as the survey results show, they are generally liked by the general public," he said.
However he added that uptake in the UK was low compared to other countries. His findings revealed that if energy companies paid 50p per unit of electricity, 23 per cent of households would install the renewable energy technology.
The UK government is currently considering how much energy providers will pay for small scale renewable energy generation, with the decision set to come into effect in April 2010
