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Energy Saving Trust Launches New Energy Saving Advice Service

Fri, 13 April 2012
 The Energy Saving Trust has been awarded the contract to run the government’s new energy saving advice service. The telephone service will be open to the public’s call from April and replaces another telephone service also run by the EST. The service will now by centralised and run by Careline service, a contact centre outsourcing business.
 

Helen Mirren Joins Campaign to Donate Winter Fuel Payments

Fri, 13 April 2012
Helen Mirren has become the latest in a long line of celebrities to join a campaign to encourage wealthy pensioners to donate their winter fuel payment to those who genuinely need it to survive the cold weather.
Fuel winter payments are not currently means tested and are given to all pensioners, including those who can afford to pay their heating bills without help. At the same time, approximately 5.4 million households are in fuel poverty, which means they are spending more than 10% of their household income on their heating and power bills.
 
The Surviving Winter appeal hopes that with the help of those pensioners who do not need their payment they can reduce the number of old people who die from the cold: estimated at 25,400 last winter. The fund will be used to support local charities and community organisations that help all those at risk, not just pensioners, survive the cold temperatures of winter.
 
The campaign is also supported by Bruce Forsyth and Rosemary Conley.
 

Green Deal Cash for Training

Fri, 13 April 2012
 The government has announced funding of £3.5 million to help train hundreds of people in key green skills ahead of the launch of the Green Deal this autumn. DECC is also funding a £10m competition to be launched in early May to support the incorporation of innovative technologies which can achieve significant energy savings in existing non-domestic buildings. Non-domestic buildings, such as schools, shops, offices, hotels, are associated with 18% of the UK’s total carbon emissions so reducing energy demand in this sector will help the country meet its climate targets.

Government Loses FITS Appeal

Fri, 13 April 2012
The Supreme Court has rejected the Department for Energy and Climate Change’s appeal over cuts to the Feed-in-Tariff. All systems installed between 12th December 2011 and 3rd March 2012 will receive the higher generation tariff for 25 years. This is the third time a court had ruled that the government’s decision to set a date for cuts in the tariff before a consultation ended has been ruled unlawful.
 
Friends of the Earth, who fought the case, has now asked the government to set out plans for how it will restore confidence in solar power and meet targets to increase solar power over the next eight years.
 

RHI: £25 Million For Low Carbon Heat

Fri, 13 April 2012
A second phase of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme, which provides vouchers towards renewable technologies like biomass boilers, air and ground source heat pumps and solar thermal panels, launched on 2nd April and will is worth £10m more than the existing scheme.
 
This phase includes an £8M competition for communities to apply for grants to encourage community groups to install renewable heating. This voucher scheme which will be mainly focused on the four million homes in Great Britain which are not heated by mains gas and are reliant on expensive oil or electric heating. There will also be a £10m competition for social landlords.
 
Following on from the controversy surrounding lowering the FITS generation tariff at short notice DECC has also launched a consultation proposing an interim measure to keep the RHI within the budgetary limits set by the Comprehensive Spending Review. This includes the possibility of giving industry one month’s notice to temporarily suspend the scheme to new entrants if 80% of the available budget is expected to be spent. In the interests of transparency and ensuring industry is not taken by surprise, regular updates on the budget spend will be published. These measures could be in place as early as the summer and will last until the longer term cost control system is in place. DECC will consult in September this year about increasing the number of technologies eligible under the industrial RHI with a view to implementing the plans by summer next year.
Under the scheme which ended on 31st March, 6412 vouchers to households were issued and £4.8m allocated.