DIY Clean Energy Could Save Britons Millions

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  These words, from President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, motivated a generation, and created the underpinning for the Peace Corps and a variety of other service oriented organizations founded in the United States.

But now, a movement in Great Britain looks, perhaps, to carry out the vision of President Kennedy on a far more literal level. While private citizens with their own means of electrical generation in the United States and the United Kingdom have long been able to sell excess electricity back to local authorities, a new clean power initiative in England looks to allow homeowners who install their own solar panels to sell electricity they generate to power companies at a substantial premium.

Though existing measures are far from sufficient ($44,000 in installation costs drew $800 in subsidies for one Briton) the new plans could reverse this trend, possibly making the island nation one of the foremost countries in generating clean energy.