Subsidies 2
The Government has identified decarbonising home heating as a key part of its plan to deliver net zero by 2050.1 Between September 2020 and March 2021, as part of government’s ‘green recovery’ from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (the Department) ran the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme (the scheme). The scheme offered homeowners up to £5,000 funding, or £10,000 for low-income households, for the installation of energy efficient improvements.
The TechX Clean Energy Accelerator supports companies developing innovative, transformative technologies that can accelerate the transition to a net zero energy industry. The Centre particularly seeks to support start-ups with diverse founder teams. Technology focus areas for the accelerator include renewable energy technologies, green and blue hydrogen and other clean fuels, carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS), digitalisation and technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry.
The PV installations were installed under the Local Authority Delivery of the Green Homes Grant, the only segment of the scheme that is both still running and that PV is eligible for.
Grants between £1,000 and £5,000 are available to help fund up to a third of the cost of systems including solar PV, biomass boilers, solar thermal, small-wind turbines, and wood fuel heaters. Projects funded include equipment upgrades, waste reduction machinery, and of course renewable energy systems. The programme has already awarded over 30 grants for renewable energy projects, with a sharp increase in applications for solar being seen in 2020/21. Solar PV projects are now the second most popular across the scheme, with 10% of applications being for this intervention (up from 0.6%) A further increase has been seen during the last month, with 50% of awarded grants in Berkshire having been for solar PV arrays.
Following the announcement that the Green Homes Grant would close to new applications on 31st March, Griff Thomas from GTEC has urged heating installers look beyond government consumer initiatives and keep faith in renewable technology as the future of heat in the UK.
ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, also commonly referred to as sustainability. In a business context, sustainability is about the company’s business model. Hence, how its products and services contribute to sustainable development, and how operations are managed to minimise any negative impact.
Three hundred local authorities across England and Scotland will share the £562m package to fund upgrades to some of the nation’s least energy efficient and fuel-poor homes. The funding will enable investments in low-income households and those living in social houses to solutions such as insulation and replacing gas boilers with low-carbon alternatives, such as heat pumps. As well as benefiting 50,000 households, the Government claims it will also support more than 8,000 energy sector jobs, such as plumbers or builders.
Last week we reported the rumours circling the industry that the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme (GHGVS) will be scrapped, leaving jobs in jeopardy. The industry has been waiting for the budget announcement to see if the rumour mill churned out some truth.
Rumours have surfaced today that the Green Home Grant Voucher Scheme (GHGVS) will be scrapped in Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s budget announcement, coming next week. Highlighted by nearly 20 organisations representing or working within energy efficiency and low carbon heating sector, scrapping the scheme will put jobs in jeopardy and endanger the UK’s abilities to reach net zero targets at risk.
Premature closure of the Green Homes Grant Scheme would put jobs in jeopardy, dash the dreams of homeowners and put the UK’s Net Zero target at significant risk
On 8th February the Government reluctantly admitted that it had issued just 20,000 GHG vouchers since the scheme began in Autumn 2020, immediately hampering efforts towards the PM’s ambitious 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028. Then just days later the situation was exacerbated when it was announced that hundreds of millions of pounds would be withdrawn from the scheme entirely.
Panasonic are currently offering installers £800 and their customers an additional £600 as part of their Green Install Cashback Scheme and Green Homes Cashback scheme.
It has been just over three months since the government’s Green Homes Grant was rolled out for consumers and installers alike, yet the scheme has already been beset by teething problems. The most pressing issue is that of installer uptake and availability. Under its terms, installers must be Trustmark, PAS or MCS certified to carry out the eligible home improvements; however, consumer demand for the scheme has seemingly outstripped supply.
REI spoke with the founders, Richard Smith & Bobby Worcester, to find out a little more about what they offer
In an open letter, the Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA) and a coalition of industry groups have urged the Government to create a level playing field for home energy storage, in recognition of the technologies’ benefits in reducing carbon emissions.
Building services training provider, GTEC, in partnership with the MCS, has won an almost £1M bid to help existing trades people access discounted training in heat pumps and solar thermal, in order to meet the demand presented by the Green Homes Grant (GHG) – the government’s scheme to improve the energy efficiency of UK housing stock.
December brought us the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) Sixth Carbon Budget, which calls for a 78% reduction in emissions between 1990 and 2035. It also sets out the world’s first pathway to a fully decarbonised economy, tackling all sectors, with a specific target for a building emissions reduction of 45%-65% by 2035.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) has produced another insightful piece of work with their Sixth Carbon Budget Report.
At the recent Solar & Storage 2020 live conference (2-4 Dec), one point that was consistently raised in the webinars was the critical role installers play in the road to net zero.
Depending on what you read, the Government’s hastily deployed Green Homes Grant is either a quick win for both energy conscious home owners and installers alike, or an ill-executed appeasement plan to divert attention from the perpetually delayed Energy White Paper.
Following the launch of the government’s Green Homes Grant on 30th September, Ian Rippin, CEO of MCS, calls for improvements to be made for the long-term benefit of installers and consumers alike and highlights the challenges presented by the scheme;
“Since the launch of the Green Homes Grant, we have been fielding calls on a daily basis from installers seeking clarity and expressing their concerns over what they feel are flaws in the scheme.
The figures were published as a cross-party task force of 24 mayors and local leaders, representing 24 million people across England submitted a proposal to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to unlock £100bn as part of the Spending Review, which closed on 24 September. The finance should be predominantly met from the private sector with the Treasury pump-priming £5bn via a Net Zero Development Bank.
Business and public leaders from across the UK have united to call on government to pledge £5 billion towards retrofitting local renewable energy systems and energy efficiency measures.
To drive through the changes needed to reach its carbon reduction targets, the government will need to shake up the current way that things are done in the heating industry. OFTEC has dusted off its crystal ball and here considers a few of the most likely policy options the government may consider.
