Grants

See information below regarding the most recent changes from the government regarding the LCBP grants and renewable heat incentives.

We advise that you always check with your local  district council regarding any grants or loans they may have available.

As per instructions from DECC, the Low Carbon Buildings Programme has been closed to all new applications as of 6am today, 24th May 2010. The main reason for this is due to spending cuts announced by the government and £3 million of savings will be taken from the programme by closing to new applications.

There are further details about the reasons for this decision hosted on the LCBP website  http://www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk/Grants-for-your-home/Closure-of-the-Low-Carbon-Buildings-Programme

All customers in receipt of a valid grant offer letter will be able to claim their grant as normal, providing their claim is in line with grant terms and conditions and within the validity period of the grant offer.

We apologise for the lack of notice and any inconvenience this may have caused in terms of information already communicated to potential customers, but the decision from DECC has come as a result of the change in government and the need to quickly identify necessary areas of savings in line with public announcements. 

Grant Administration

Low Carbon Buildings Programme

Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI)

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme is currently out for consultaion hence the details here may change before the scheme is launched in April 2011, however the maiin points are not expected to change in a any major way.

In February, the Government produced a consultation document on the proposed Renewable Heat Incentives (RHI) scheme. This consultation sets out the Govenments proposals on the design and operation of the Renewable Heat Incentive, with the aim of providing financial support that encourages individuals, communities and businesses to switch from using fossil fuel for heating, to reneable technologies and sources. 

The following are the key aspects of the RHI:

  • The scheme should support a range of technologies, including air, water and ground-source heat pumps (and other geothermal energy), solar thermal, biomass boilers, renewable combined heat and power, use of biogas and bioliquids and the injection of bi methane into the natuaral gas grid.
  • RHI payments to be claimed by, and paid to, the owner of the equipment. The RHI will be available to housholders, local authorities and social landlords as well as the public, industrial and commercial sectors. All installations commissioned after the 15th July 2009 will be seen as a "new installation and will be eligible for the RHI.
  • In small and medium sized instillations, both installers ans equipment to be certified under the microgeneration certification scheme (MCS) or equivalent standard, helping to ensure quality assurance and consumer protection.
  • Payments will be paid over the life of the equipment (for ground source 23 years) and will be inflation linked and guarenteed; annually for installations below 45kW and quartlely for those above this level; and always subject to conditions such as continuing to operate and maintain the equipment.
  • Tariff levels have been calculated to bridge the financial gap between the cost of conventional and renewable heat systems at all scales, with additional compensation for certain technologies for an element of the non - financial cost (eg tariff levels are proposed to provide a rate of return of 12% on the additional capital cost of renewables, with a lower rate of return of 6% given to solar thermal.

Proposed tariff (p/kWh) 

Ground source heat pumps: Up to 45kW 7p/kWh for 23 years

                                               45 to 350kW 5.5P/kWh for 20 years

                                               350kW and above 1.5p/kWh for 20 years

Payments are to be calculated on the annual amount of heat output, expressed in kilowatt hours (kWh). At a small and medium scale, the amount of heat generated be the equipment is proposed to be estimated when installed in most cases. This will allow the beneficiary of the incentive to recieve a set amount based on the deemed output, to encourage low energy consumption and discourage wasting heat.

  • The RHI will encourage renewable energy systems to be installed in buildings adopting a basic level of energy efficiency measures in a "whole house approach". A basic minimum level of energy efficiency required for existing homes would be:

i) at least 125mm of loft insulation, and

ii) cavity wall filled where appropriate.

To incentivise households to implement these standards, the scheme proposes to introduce so called "deemed" (rather than metered) compensation under RHI. This would be done through an assessment using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) (or similar) used for energy rating of buildings to identify the appropriate deemed heating heat demand of the building based on the assumption that the minimum, energy efficency measures will have been taken up alongside the renewable heat instalation.

  • The renewable heat installations will be the sole fixed heating installation in the property (not counting any immersion heater that may form part of such installation).
  • Current Grant schemes such as the Low Carbon Building Programme, CERT and CSEP will currently still be available and can be claimed as well as the RHI.