Industry News

National news March

Update on the Renewable Heat Incentive
Details of the new Renewable Heat Incentive were published by Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, this month. The incentive will encourage the installation of renewable heat equipment such as solar thermal technologies, biomass boilers and heat pumps. It will be funded from general Government funding, not through the previously proposed RHI levy.

It will be rolled out in two phases. In the first phrase, from July 2011, the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) tariffs for non-domestic installations in the industrial, business and public sector will be introduced.

There will also be support of around £15 million for households through the RHI Premium Payment from July 2011. Up to 25,000 households will benefit from the payment to help cover the purchase price. The eligibility criteria include a fair spread of technologies across the UK, a well insulated home and properties off the gas grid. In return for the payments, participants will have to provide feedback on how the equipment performs in practice.

A DECC press release on 10 March 2011 indicated likely levels of support for RHI premium payments:

Full details of the RHI Premium payment will be published in May 2011.

Phase two will take place from October 2012 when RHI tariffs for domestic properties will become available at the same time as the introduction of the Green Deal. Anyone in receipt of Renewable Heat Premium Payments will be eligible for the RHI, as will anybody who has installed an eligible technology since 15 July 2009.

For further information see the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s press release.

New energyshare fund launches up to £500,000 for community energy
The energyshare fund has been launched with up to £500,000 for community renewable energy projects. Energyshare is calling for communities across the UK to register their interest here.

This is just the beginning. Energyshare’s founding partners are River Cottage and British Gas and through the energyshare fund British Gas are committed to distributing a further £3m to community renewable projects over the next 3 years. By getting involved in energyshare you can help decide which projects get funded.

Energyshare is a 100% renewable energy community giving everyone in the UK the opportunity to get involved in sourcing, using, and generating your own renewable energy. Energyshare want to learn from community projects - like you, what works for you.

Energyshare is also excited to be launching lots of new features including:

WATTS GOING ON? A tool to log and celebrate the renewable energy communities and individuals are generating. Visit the site to log your power.

YOUR ENERGY JOURNEY: energyshare members can check their energy use as an individual against the national average. Log on to start your energy journey.

Plus there’s improved functionality for groups, a better information database and new case studies.

For more info and to check out how to register for funding you can read the energyshare fund pages.

You can also follow energyshare on Facebook and Twitter

Government commits to being the greenest Government ever in 2011 Budget
The 2011 Budget states that the Government is committed to being the greenest Government ever. The key approach to enable this is market based solutions to pricing carbon. From April 2013, a carbon price floor for electricity generation will be introduced. It will start at around £16 per tonne of carbon dioxide and follow a linear path to £30 per tonne in 2020 to drive investment in the low-carbon sector.

The Government is also committed to ensuring that the Green Investment Bank (GIB) has the resources to help the UK to move towards a low-carbon economy. The Government has announced that the initial capitalisation of the GIB will be £3 billion and will be in operation in 2012-2013 – a year earlier than previously anticipated. The Government will also enable the GIB to have borrowing powers from 2015-16, once the target for debt to be falling as a percentage of GDP has been met. Government investment alongside private finance should mean that there is an additional £18 billion of investment in green infrastructure by 2014-15 as a result of GIB.

On the Green Investment Bank, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne, said:

“There’s a clear, long term signal to energy investors in today’s Budget. A Green Investment bank with substantially more capital and borrowing capacity and a stronger, more stable carbon price puts investment in green energy technologies at the heart of the coalition’s strategy for sustainable, balanced economic growth.”

Also in the Budget, the Government is committed to the success of the Green Deal and will act to encourage and incentives take-up so that the Green Deal will appeal to house-holds, businesses and prospective providers alike, before it is introduced in 2012.

The information in this article has been taken from the 2011 Budget. Pages 32-33 of the Budget concern the environment.

New Feed-In-Tariffs put forward for consultation
Proposals to reduce the financial support available to larger scale solar-produced electricity have now been published by the Government. The consultation follows an announcement on 7th February of the start of the first comprehensive review of the FITs scheme for small low carbon electricity generation. The launch of the review came after evidence showed that there could already be 169MW of large scale solar capacity already in the planning system – an equivalent to funding solar panels for around 50,000 homes if current tariffs are left unchanged.

In his press release Greg Barker writes that the previous government failed to anticipate large or small scale non-domestic solar PV installations and that the rapid increase in the number of larger installations entering the scheme could distort funding for smaller and domestic installations.

Greg Barker, Climate Change Minister said: “These proposals aim to rebalance the scheme and put a stop the threat of larger-scale solar soaking up the cash. The FITs scheme was never designed to be a profit generator for big businesses and financiers.”

The consultation also covers proposals to provide added support to farm-scale anaerobic digestion given the disappointing uptake of such technologies to date.

The new tariffs put forward for consultation are:

19p/kWh for 50kW to 150kW
15p/kWh for 150kW to 250kW
8.5p/kWh for 250kW to 5MW and stand alone installations

Compared with tariffs that would have otherwise applied from 1 April:

32.9p/kWh for 10 kw to 100kw
30.7p/kWh for 100kw to 5MW and stand alone installations

Greg Barker believes that the changing tariffs will allow us to avoid the boom-and-bust approach and enable us to support more homes and installations. However, opposition to the proposal argues that reducing the tariffs for roof-mounted schemes of over 50kW by 39-49% makes them totally unviable. And many of these are community and SME projects with tremendous popular support.

Gaynor Hartnell, Chief Executive of the Renewable Energy Association said: “larger PV projects are cheaper, and have a major role in driving down costs. We don’t want boom and bust in this sector either, but pulling the rug out from under the feet of those that have ventured into this market was precisely the wrong response…does untold damage to investor confidence.”

Any changes to generation tariffs implemented as a result of the consultation will only affect new entrants into the FITs scheme. Solar PV installations less than 50kW are not affected by this fast track review. Changes are proposed to be implemented in advance of the comprehensive review of FITs, taking effect from 1 August 2011.

UK Climate and Community Action Map launched
A UK wide interactive map is being developed by the Low Carbon Communities Network and Mapping for Change for the Communities and Climate Action Alliance. The new Climate and Community Action Map can help you to find out about action to tackle climate change across the UK.

The UK wide Climate and Community Action Map was launched at the Communities and Climate Action conference on 17th January 2011. The map is a long term project, developing over the years ahead, to record local action.

The map lists local organisations and projects, as well as larger organisations, which can provide assistance to organisations looking to act on climate change. To find a project you can zoom in to see your area. The map has a range of icons: each one of these represents an organisation or a project. Once you click on an icon, a box will appear with full details of the project or organisation you want to know about.

You can also add your own project, organisation or event on to the map. To do this you will need to register.

Mapping for Change is a social enterprise that exists to support the development of sustainable communities. They specialise in providing participatory mapping services and have experience across the fields of community engagement, geographic information systems and mapping technology.

You can find the map on the Low Carbon Communities Network’s website (LCCN). LCCN is a network of organisations tackling climate change through local action.

View the map here.