More cash for renewable heat for offices and local firms?

Extra cash could be made available for buildings such as offices, community centres and factories which want to get ground source heat pumps, large biomass boilers or solar thermal installations, […]

Extra cash could be made available for buildings such as offices, community centres and factories which want to get ground source heat pumps, large biomass boilers or solar thermal installations, the Government announced today.

Under the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s plans for its Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, buildings across the country will be able to get a bigger tariff for heat generated from these sources.

The scheme was launched for the non domestic sector in November 2011 and DECC is consulting on doubling the amount paid for biomass boilers larger than 1MW from its original 1pence to 2pence per kilowatt hour (kWh) and boosting cash for all sizes of ground source heat pumps  to 7.2-8.2p per kWh. Tariffs for solar thermal projects of up to 200kW could rise to 10-11.3p per kWh.

Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “Over 1,300 innovative renewable heat technologies have already been installed under this scheme and are generating cash for the heat they produce.

“We need to make sure they are set at the right level to continue bringing forward investment and growth and at the same time keep costs to the taxpayer to a minimum. That’s what our proposals set out today are designed to do.”

The Government expects the new payment levels to kick in from Spring 2014 but expects any building which has applied for the RHI from 1 January 2013 to get the higher support.

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