Heat Pump and Renewable Energy Grants
As part of the UK’s commitment to fighting climate change and reducing domestic carbon emissions, national and local grants are available for installing renewable home heating and hot water systems. Ecovision knows most sources of additional funding, we have completed hundreds of successful applications and our experience in this area will give you the best opportunity to secure assistance.
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a new Government environmental programme designed to increase the uptake of renewable heat technologies by providing incentive payments to eligible generators of renewable heat for domestic and non-domestic properties.
The following key criteria have to be met in order to be eligible for the RHI. This is not an exhaustive list – please refer to the Guidance document for detailed eligibility criteria specific to your installation:
The installation must be of an eligible technology type and size.
The plant must have been completed and first commissioned on or after 15 July 2009.
The heat for which the RHI is being claimed must be being used for an eligible purpose.
No grant from public funds can have been paid in respect of any of the costs of purchasing or installing the technology.
The plant must be new at the time of installation.
The heating system to which the installation provides heat must use a liquid or steam as the heat delivery medium.
For installations of 45kW and below, both the equipment and the installer must be certified under the MicroGeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).
Only installations which do not serve a single domestic premises are eligible for the RHI in the first year (non-domestic). The RHI will be extended to include installations serving individual households in October 2012, in line with the launch of the Green Deal.
Non domestic installations are included in Phase 1.
A generation tariff will be paid for every kWh (kilowatt-hour of energy produced). The level of payment depends on the technology and the system size.
At the moment you can't register as the scheme isn't live. Once Ofgem launches its database your MCS installer will register the installation. Ofgem will pay the incentive direct to your bank account, probably as an annual lump sum.
Non-domestic installations – due to be effective from January 2012
This applies to a renewable heat unit that supplies heat to any building being used for Commercial, Industrial, not for profit and Public Sector purposes, including district heating schemes.
Examples of non-domestic installations include:
1. Installations in public buildings such as Schools, Universities, Hospitals or Public Libraries
2. Installations where one heat generator serves multiple homes, e.g. district heating
3. Small or large Commercial applications such as offices or industrial units
Unlike with the Feed-in Tariffs for renewable electricity, there is no upper limit to the size of installations supported under the RHI, which would cover both a 10kW pellet boiler in a small pub and a 400kW ground source heat pump.
Domestic installations – due to be effective from October 2012
According to the March 2011 RHI document, "domestic installations are those where a renewable heating installation serves a single private residential dwelling only”. This does not include multiple residential dwellings served by one renewable heating installation (e.g. district heating) nor single residential dwellings which have been significantly adapted for non-residential use. For example, a house where someone works or runs a business from home would be considered domestic unless they are3 paying business rates on that section of the house which would make it mixed-use and therefore elgible. This would apply to a house converted to be a shop or bed & breakfast, if business rates are paid on any part of the building it will be eligible to receive RHI support.
The Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP)
Each domestic property installing a renewable heating technology between 1st August 2011 and 31st March 2012 can claim a one off payment. They will also be eligible to claim the RHI tariffs from October 2012, under Phase 2 of the scheme
The payments available are:
Solar thermal hot water £300
Air source heat pump £850
Ground source heat pump £1250
Biomass boiler £960
In order to qualify:
1. The property must have loft insulation to 250mm and cavity wall insulation (where practical).
2. All necessary planning and environmental permissions should be in place.
3. The installation must use certified products and a certified installer.
4. You may be asked to submit information about how your system is performing.
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