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Payback for homeowners who return power to grid The Times July 09

Homeowners who install solar panels and wind turbines will be paid for any electricity that they feed back into the National Grid, the Government confirmed yesterday.

The payments will be based on a fixed price per unit of electricity and will be set high enough to encourage hundreds of thousands of homes to invest in renewable sources of power.

Local energy suppliers will adjust the bills that they issue according to the number of units fed back into the grid.

Homeowners with low energy consumption and a solar panel could receive net payments from their energy company. Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said that the "feed-in tariffs" would be available from next April. He added: "The crucial thing about feed-in tariffs is that they do not speak to people's wish to do their bit and see benefits flowing back to their community  from renewable energy generation.

"We can harness people's enthusiasm for getting involved, doing their bit, to help creat the clean energy of the future".