Simplicity and solar panels

Indigo Redfern reflects on the spiritual side effects of solar panels

A few months ago I read a detailed article in the Guardian about solar panels and the new ‘Feed-in Tariffs’. Labour’s parting shot was this new legislation that suddenly made solar not just affordable, but actually a sound investment. The solar electricity generated on our roof is fed back into the grid, for which the electricity company is obliged to pay handsomely for the next twenty-five years. So the £10,000 cost of installing solar panels is repaid over ten years at £1,000 pa by the electricity company buying the electricity generated; for the next fifteen years we keep the £1,000 pa. And while all this goes on, we also get to use all the free electricity we want while the panels are generating. What could be better? Especially after adding in that smug, holy feeling for reducing our carbon footprint…

What I hadn’t realised was the spiritual side effects of all this. About a month after the panels had been fitted, the awful truth began to sink in. This was no short-term fix. This decision had repercussions. Unwittingly, I had effectively committed to stay in this house for twenty-five years, which is the rest of my life.

I grew up in the Thatcher era, and imbibed the attitude that housing is an ‘investment’ rather than a home. I’ve moved house at least ten times in my adult life, some owned, some rented. There has always been the tantalising feeling that there’s something better around the corner, that it’s necessary to ‘climb the ladder’, to ‘accumulate assets’, to keep on the move. This was all unconscious, of course, and completely in conflict with my Quaker ideals. But suddenly these solar panels gave me a very different perspective. I’m stuck here; I’m committed to this house with all its imperfections and limitations. My future life has been transformed from fantasy into reality – I know where I’ll be spending the rest of my life; here, with my partner, in this house, in this town.

And this is where the simplicity comes into the equation: it’s about the collapse of energy-sapping illusions and the acceptance of life-enhancing reality. The housing-as-investment illusion has been shattered; my ‘investment’ has been transformed into a home. I can breathe out and inhabit this house for me, now, in this life, not be unconsciously preparing it for the approval of an unknown next owner. Alongside this, I’m accepting that I’m unlikely to suddenly become a high-earning hotshot who can afford a mansion. And actually, this makes me realise that I’m happy as I am, working part-time in a charity doing useful work with people I like. I may not earn much, but it’s enough, and the work/life balance is invaluable to me.

So these solar panels have led me to start dropping out of the mental rat-race, and take a step towards the emotionally simpler mindset of accepting reality. I can recommend it.

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