Ulster Bank offers half off for a 'Solar Mortgage'

Installing solar panels can be a bit of a financial challenge for many ordinary families, but now peeps in Northern Ireland (only) can take out the so-called 'Solar Mortgage', which makes it both easier and cheaper to get those panels up there on the roof.

The Solar Mortgage is not, as the name might suggest, a way to get a cheaper home mortgage by putting some solar panels on your roof. It's merely a clever loan earmarked for solar energy investments. What makes it clever is that Ulster Bank offers it customers 50 per cent off its standard variable credit rate for three years for a loan for solar panels -- provided the customers buy their solar panels or tiles from Solarcentury, that is.

The rate is currently 7.42 per cent and Ulster Bank estimates that customers can save around £880 on an £11,000 loan, which is the average cost of installing solar panels on an ordinary three-bedroom house.

We won't turn our noses up at the discount and customers can obviously feel smug in the knowledge that they're cutting their household's carbon footprint by roughly one tonne and reducing their energy bills by up to 50 per cent, too, according to Ulster Bank.

We do think, however, that Ulster Bank should have called the deal a 'Solar Loan' instead, and let people choose which solar power company to use.

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