- 1st March 2007 09:00 Grants phone lines open.
- 1st March 2007 10:15 Grants phone lines closed after 189 callers qualify and all the money is used
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Are they taking this seriously?
The government has just allocated £500,000 to grants for domestic renewable energy projects. I can't help but feel this amount shows a less than total commitment to renewable energy and domestic micro generation. To demonstrate how woefully inadiquate this allocation heres what happened: -
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3 comments:
One of the big problems with the grant scheme is that it required the installers to be certified. The certification rests on the installer having done several isntallations, and also requires them to have a full account audit to ensure they are a reputable company (a council last year tried to apply but balked at supplying all their accounts!).
This really buggers things up, as no-one is going to for-go the grant to have a non-certified installer, so the waiting lists for the few authorised installers are just getting longer and longer, and very few new installers are being certified.
The other big problem with it is that there is an emphasis (in terms of the promotional material) on solar voltaics, which are (currently) quite inefficient, in terms of area required and cost per unit of power generated. Solar water heating on the other hand saves relatively more energy (esp if you don't have gas) and requires less roof area and gives a much quicker financial return as well. It'd be nice to see more emphasis on heat pumps etc as well - I might write a primer on what's available/possible/sensible if I get chance between baby and work...
Hi Colin,
I was pleased to hear that the government are encouraging everyone to move to renewable anergy. I just need to work what to do with my household's 2p !
Any suggeschuns
Frank King
You could put it towards some B&Q solar panels. You will have to find the remaining 99.998% of the cost yourself. However you can at least be assured that they will pay for themselves in roughly 50 years (or they would if the didn't have an expected lifespan of 30 years).
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