Victoria's Blog

What do you do when you’ve run out of roof space but still want to invest in solar panels?

FOREWORD
As with all the posts on this site, this post is purely my opinion and a log of the things I have done. This post is in no way meant as investment advice or an endorsement for the shares/funds/trusts mentioned.  Always do your own research and/or seek independent financial advice before investing. 

I’ve reached the point where I will have covered most of the available roof space on my parents’ house with solar panels and short of placing panels on the flat end wall of the house on angled brackets (so reflected light doesn’t blind our neighbours), there isn’t any practical space left for more solar panels 🙁 

So what can I do to keep investing in solar when I haven’t got any more roof space? 

I found the answer when I was looking for safer stocks and shares this Spring and was after something that paid a consistent dividend over many years – Solar specialising Investment Trusts (ITs). 

With the trading platform I use, there are three ITs that specialise in Solar – Bluefield Solar Income Fund (lon:bsif), Foresight Solar Fund Limited (lon:fsfl) and NextEnergy Solar Fund Limited (lon:nesf).  All three have a number of large solar installations, most in the UK but some abroad in two of the funds cases. 

In much the same way as my first home solar array receives Feed In Tariff payments once a quarter, for the majority of the solar installations, these ITs get paid for the electricity their installations generate under the Renewable Obligation Scheme.  The ITs then pay their shareholders a quarterly dividend which will hopefully go up with inflation each year.   There is an element of risk with these ITs as they are reliant on wholesale energy prices and solar irradiation. 

There are similar ITs for wind and battery storage but I’m less familiar with wind technology and potential. I wish I had a garden big enough for a 2MW wind turbine though 😀