The past few months have seen some huge developments in the field of renewable energy. These developments are almost certainly going to have an impact on the way we all use energy.

Until a few months ago, solar thermal hot water heating had been the most cost effective way for people to generate their own renewable energy - for every pound invested it has usually delivered the highest units of energy.

The reason for this is that solar thermal systems have always been the most efficient renewable energy systems. Solar thermal hot water systems directly convert the suns infra-red radiation into heat. There is no other energy required apart from normally a small pump and no processes that reduce efficiency such as those involved in generating electricity from the sun.

However, in the last few months this has all changed with the introduction of the feed in tariff in April 2010. The feed in tariff, or clean energy cash back scheme, is a policy used to dramatically increase the use of renewable energy by providing a long term financial incentive for people to invest in renewable energy systems. Under the scheme energy companies are obligated to pay a premium for electricity generated from renewable sources.

The feed in tariff is designed to generate an income in three ways, firstly you get paid for all the energy that you generate (generation tariff), secondly you get an additional payment for any energy that is not consumed on site and sold back to the grid (export tariff) and thirdly you make a saving from not buying in the energy that has been replaced by the energy generated on site.

Currently, the feed in tariff pays a higher amount for electricity generated by renewable sources than heat. Although a solar thermal system produces more Kwh/£, the feed in tariff effectively makes a solar PV system a better financial option as the energy produced by a PV system is worth more. However, the situation looks set to change again. In April 2011 the government is to introduce the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). The RHI is a ground breaking strategy to increase the uptake of renewable heat in the UK. Heat is a huge part of household energy consumption and accounts for nearly half of Europe’s total energy demand. Until now this has been largely overlooked. Although we do not yet know how the RHI will be implemented or how the remuneration will be figured, we do know that all systems installed from now on will be eligible for the RHI. Currently, the Renewable Energy Association are predicting that the RHI will pay approximately 16p per kw for heat generated by solar thermal systems.

One thing however is clear and that is that we are on the verge of a revolution in renewable energy. Until now the biggest barrier for people wanting to generate their own renewable energy has been the up-front capital cost. With the introduction of the feed in tariff and the renewable heat incentive the government is making renewable energy available to everyone.