FITs and ROCs explained

FITs and ROCs are schemes devised by the Department of Energy & Climate Change, under which you can sell the renewable energy that you generate. Depending on your solar PV system, you may be eligable for one or both of these schemes.

Feed-In Tariff

FITs are designed to encourage the deployment of small-scale (up to 5MW) low-carbon electricity generation systems. It is made up of two parts:

Generation tariff: either a fixed or a flexible (fluctuating according the energy market) rate paid by the energy supplier for each unit (kW) or energy generated (for solar energy, currently around £293 per MW¹);
Export tariff: an additional rate, paid by the energy supplier, for each unit of electricity exported to the Grid (i.e. that is not used onsite).

Remember that earnings from FITs are in addition to the savings that you'll make on your energy bills.

Renewable Obligation Certificates

ROCs are the main financial mechanism by which Government incentivises the deployment of large-scale (over 50kW) renewable electricity generation systems.

For each unit of electricity generated you receive certificates (ROCs) from Ofgem. These certificates can then be sold to energy suppliers in order for them to fulfil renewable energy quotas set by Government.

The value of ROCs change anually with the energy market (current around £42 per certificate¹), and you receive a fixed number of them per unit of renewable electricity generated (currently 2 certificates per MW generated¹), irregardless of the source.

If your installation qualifies for both FITs and ROCs we can calculate which scheme will help to make the most out of your system. If you'd like to discuss this in more detail with us, feel free to contact us.

¹ correct as of October 2012.