Poorer households could cut their energy bills by a quarter if solar panels were installed on their rooftops, a report has found.
Zachary Leather, an economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Rooftop solar panels can cut poor households’ energy bills by around a quarter and their returns compare well with other bill-cutting measures.
The highest abundance of threatened red- and amber-listed bird species (such as corn bunting, yellowhammer and linnet) was in the solar farms that were managed for nature, and was significantly higher than in both surrounding arable land and in the solar sites that were grazed and did not contain hedgerows.
The report said the savings from rooftop solar panels could reduce their energy bills by 24%.
The research by the charity and the University of Cambridge found that – hectare for hectare – solar farms situated in East Anglia contained a greater number of bird species and overall number of individuals than surrounding arable land.
