More support for renewable heat, and Feed-in Tariff is unchanged

Following the raft of energy announcements this week by the government, the case for installing renewable energy technologies – such as solar PV and biomass – remains as critical, if not even more important, than it was this time last week. While media headlines indicate that money is being taken away from some sustainable energy technologies, there has been no change to the Feed-in Tariff, plus the government has announced additional funding for renewable heat technologies.

More support for renewable heat

From spring 2014, those homeowners and businesses who choose air source heat pumps will be eligible for renewable heat incentive (RHI) payments.  SunGift customers such as Wilfred Reynolds (see his case study here: http://goo.gl/OSa8Ql),who already have air source heat pumps installed, will be eligible to receive backdated RHI payments. And there’s more good news for our commercial customers who chooses technologies such as solar thermal, biomass and ground source heat pumps, as the RHI tariffs have been raised for all of these technologies. “While the government has announced that the average energy bill will be reduced by £50, unfortunately that is nowhere near enough to compensate for the rising prices of energy costs,” said SunGift’s managing director Gabriel Wondrausch.  “For example, British Gas owner Centrica said it would cut bills by £53 in January, but this follows a £123 price rise two months earlier.  We should be very clear that energy prices will continue to rise and the only way that businesses and homeowners can avoid these rocketing increases is to produce their own renewable heat and electricity.

Feed in Tariff remains the same

“It’s good news that the Feed-in Tariffs remain unchanged,” added Gabriel, “but with a reduction on 1 April 2014 of at least 3.5% in the FIT rate for systems up to 50kW, it makes sense for people to get their solar PV systems booked in and installed before then. For those that do want to book in and guarantee themselves the higher FIT rate, we currently have PV installation slots available from late January onwards.” Some of the key points for commercial RHI from this week include:

  • A specific tariff for biomass CHP of 4.1 p/kWh of eligible heat produced
  • A tariff for air to water heat pumps (AWHP) set at 2.5 p/kWh
  • A tariff of 5.9 p/kWh for biogas installations with a thermal capacity of between 200 to 600 kWth and 2.2 p/kWh for those greater than 600kWth.
  • Ground source heat pumps will receive a single tariff of 7.2 p/kWh, which will be tiered.
  • All the new tariffs will be available under the non-domestic RHI in Spring 2014 and are subject to State Aids and Parliamentary approval.

Visit our commercial pages (https://www.sungiftsolar.co.uk/commercial/) to find out how SunGift can help you lower your business’s energy bills by producing your own renewable energy By SunGift Solar.