Ofgem has confirmed that electric prices will rise over the next year by as much as 19%. The price rise will cover the costs of having to replace outdated infrastructure of 6% which will be needed to be spent over  a number of years. The remaining 13% of the increase is to cover the additional costs of gas for the power stations. This is not good news for householders and businesses already having to manage through difficult financial times.

The opportunity does exist however for people to generate their own electricity and there are a number of options available. Mipower Limited, Shropshire's Solar Power Company, supplies and installs photo voltaic solar panel systems which can provide over half the electricity a property may need. The electricity generated will be free to the property owner and the electricity not used can be sold to the National Grid for a minimum of 3p per kW.  In addition for every kW generated the electricity supply company will pay the property owner 41p tax free and indexed linked for 25 years for up to a 4kW system which should be more than enough to pay the initial capital cost of providing the system.

Graham Bennett Director of Mipower said: "I have been building houses and commercial property for over 30 years and the benefit for new and older properties to have the opportunity to have their own solar PV generating systems for free electricity is one that all property owners should consider. We offer a service involving experts at every stage of the process, in particular when doing the installations on people's roofs, when the knowledge we have from our experience of developing for many years is a unique offering."