The £860 million Renewable Heat Incentive, announced today by the government, is good news for householders and businesses that choose to switch from traditional heating to technologies such as solar thermal panels, ground source heat pumps, and wood chip burners. For the first time ever, householders, businesses and schools will be able to make money from heating their properties. This makes fitting renewable energy to your property not only much more attractive, but very affordable.

A new environmental initiative is offering community groups the chance to share in a £50,000 grants jackpot.

The Community Chest grant scheme has been launched by electricity company Western Power Distribution (WPD) in partnership with the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) who will administer the initiative and provide expert advice and support.

Mitsubishi have announced a new fund to assist with the purchase of their Ecodan Air Source Heat Pump. They are able to offer this through a Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) Scheme funded by their partner’s, British Gas.

The funding is now available for Ecodan because of the significant carbon savings that can be achieved by installing Ecodan compared to other heating technologies.

This one-off funding is paid directly to the home owner (private individual, landlord, housing association or social housing provider) and any domestic property qualifies.

The Government has announced plans to offer buyers of electric cars up to £5000 toward the purchase.

Transport Secretary Philip Hammond confirmed today (July 28) that motorists would be able to apply for the cash towards purchase of an ultra-low carbon car from January 2011.

The £5,000 has been guaranteed by the Government until March 2012, but will be reviewed in January 2012.

Until March 2010 £43 million will made available to fund the scheme.

Closure of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme to new Applications Effective from Monday 24th May 2010

• Government has announced that it is committed to delivering £6bn of departmental spending cuts in 2010/11.
• The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is contributing £85m to this total. The sum reflects the fact that DECC operates with relatively small admin costs but still delivers against a big and challenging agenda.
• Cuts of this level are never going to be easy. They come from two sources:

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP), Phase-1 and Phase-2 has closed to all new applications for grants for electrical microgeneration as of 5pm, Wednesday 3rd February, which follows the publication of the Government’s consultation on the Feed-In Tariffs (FIT’s)

Unfortunately due to extremely high demand the current allocation of funds available for RE4D grants has been used up. We are currently waiting to hear what their next offer will be.

As you may know the government is currently running a boiler scrappage scheme for England giving households a £400 incentive if they upgrade a G-rated boiler for a modern heating system.

What a lot of people are unaware of is that this scheme also covers heat pumps.

As MCS accredited heat pump installers this means that our customers qualify for an additional £900 Low Carbons Building Programme grant against installation.

That’s £1,300 available towards the installation of an air source heat pump!

The Government has today launched a search for local authorities, charities and social enterprises to take up the challenge to help communities fight climate change.

Communities can apply for a share of a £10million fund as part of the Low Carbon Communities Challenge to build on existing low carbon schemes.

Around a quarter of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions come from heating, lighting and powering electrical appliances in homes. By 2050 this needs to be almost zero if the UK is to cut its emissions by 80% highlighting the importance of local action.

Devon County Council have committed a Match Fund to provide Schools and Colleges the capital to invest in Carbon Saving projects.

This Green Challenge Fund is a fantastic opportunity for Schools and Colleges to upgrade the Building Services and Fabric of their buildings, contributing to the reduction of climate damaging carbon dioxide emissions, reducing fuel bills and increasing the efficiency of their buildings.