Feed-in gets in on the Act

UK adopts incentive pricing to encourage microgen
Millions of UK homes could become green mini power stations, rather than emissions-heavy drains on the grid. But would it be worth it? Until now, enthusiasts for microgeneration in the UK have looked longingly across the Channel at countries with ‘feed-in tariffs’, specifying stable and attractive prices for renewable power sold into the grid. This approach, widely credited with driving Germany’s boom in photovoltaics, helps everyone down to the individual householder to predict the return on any ‘green’ power they generate beyond their own immediate needs. Now the UK government has endorsed the principle in the Energy Act.

Quite how – or when – the new deal will work here has not been spelled out. We do know it will be restricted to small-scale generation, and won’t replace the existing renewables obligation for industrial-scale players.

Its eleventh hour inclusion in the Act, along with the promise of an incentive scheme for renewable heat, was generally welcomed by environmentalists. Juliet Davenport of renewable supplier Good Energy agreed it showed promise – as long as the government “doesn’t go ‘off piste’ with its own schemes”, but instead works with existing practitioners to sort out straightforward and unbureaucratic rules. – Roger East

• Good Energy has launched an incentive scheme for households with solar water heating. Its ‘Hot ROCs’ initiative will estimate how much these panels are cutting their carbon emissions, and credit them accordingly against their bills on the company’s new dual fuel (gas and electric) tariff.

28 January 2009

Roger East

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