Grants for solar heating panels
Homeowners across the United Kingdom can now get grants towards the cost of installing systems such as solar heating panels and evacuated tubes.
• Solar Heating Panels including Evacuated Solar Tubes– £300 grant (available to all homes, regardless of the type of the existing heating system). The coalition government unveiled a £15m Renewable Heat Premium Payment scheme– which begins on 1 August and will run until March 2012. The incentive aims to support up to 25,000 micro-generation installations on a first-come-first-served basis.
• Biomass boiler– £950 grant (for homes without mains gas).
• Air and ground source heat pumps– £850 grant (for homes without mains gas).
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme aimed at anyone wanting to reduce their heating expenses with solar panels and evacuated tube technology. An extra 4million homes in rural areas that are not connected to the mains gas network and have to rely on more expensive forms of heating, such as oil, will also be able to get extra help with ground source and air source heat pumps.
The Renewable Heat Incentive will reward those people who install renewable energy measures with annual payments, similar to feed-in tariff schemes that have been so successful in encouraging PV solar panel installations. Participants of the scheme will be asked to provide feedback through annual surveys of the system outputs and performance figures.
This incentive allows the government to gather information to collect more information on these types of renewable heat outputs and performance figures.
A new era for solar heating panels
Climate change minister Greg Barker said: “Today starts a new era in home heating. We are making it cheaper for people to go green by providing discounts on the cost of eco-technology installations like solar panels. This scheme should be great news for people who are reliant on expensive oil or electric heating, as the scheme aimed at them.”
Stuart Lovatt, the founder of Power My Home, comments “When people have these technologies installed in their homes, they see the benefit. Initial preconceptions of solar panel technology have been swept away over the last five years, with advancements in technology making it easier to understand.
It must acknowledge that the evacuated solar tube systems, in particular, have pushed the efficiency of solar heating to new and better levels than before.”
For those homes who already have necessary energy-saving measures, such as insulation, double glazing, and low energy light bulbs, it’s a great way to increase not only their market value but more importantly, to improve their energy efficiency for the next 25+ years.
Nobody can argue that this is not a good thing in today’s high energy price world. The main issues that prevent people from taking up solar heating and heat pump technologies are the up-front capital cost and inadequate knowledge of how well they work even in the UK climate. This scheme will be a great start to overcoming these obstacles.
As more and more people take the plunge and install micro-generation systems and higher energy costs begin to squeeze household budgets, the more we will see these types of systems as the norm.
sounds intresting
In the distant past, the main incentives to adopt solar heat panels technology were the small savings to be made on heating bills and reducing CO2. It was a ‘cottage industry’ for the environmentally friendly.
In recent years, the Government’s ‘Low Carbon Buildings Programme, attempted to help with the up font costs and reducing the payback.
The scheme ended in May 2010, and there has been nothing since to replace it until now. This void has severely damaged the solar panel industry.
Whilst the new Renewable Heat Incentive is not a upfront grant to help with the up front costs, it does reduce the payback time massively.
The £300 RHI Premium payment is a positive first step towards the full RHI due out in October 2012, which you will also be able to apply for on top of the current payment.