DEEC Loses Supreme Court FiT Cuts Appeal
2nd April 2012
Within the last week, a panel of Supreme Justices refused the Government permission to appeal an earlier High Court ruling. Consequently, any solar PV systems installed between 12th December 2011 and 3rd March 2012 will receive the higher FiT rate of 43.3p per KwH for 25 years.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has also been ordered to pay the costs of the other parties, which include major solar panel companies and charity Friends of the Earth.
An official statement explained that "Permission to appeal was refused because the application does not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance which ought to be considered by the Supreme Court at this time".
The DECC could theoretically appeal to the European Court but last week Alasdair Grainger of the DECC's feed-in-tariff team confirmed that they would not be considering this option if the Supreme Court case was lost.
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Is Your Organisation Ready for the Green Deal?
17th April 2012
October is really only around the corner, so is your organisation ready for the Green Deal?
This is the question posed to social housing landlords by First Adapt, who in collaboration with UK-Housing, have developed a Green Deal Knowledge Map.
Knowledge Maps are uniquely designed to present multiple strands of information in one, easy to access place. The Green Deal Knowledge Map is centrally hosted and available as an On Line tool.
No implementation, no maintenance overheads and being so easy to use that navigation around the Map is completely intuitive.
Further, if users need help with any aspects of the Green Deal, advice is available from the leading authority in the field - Phyllis Boardman.
Most importantly - the Green Deal Map is available free on a 3 month trial basis. Users can get the benefit now of having access to a Knowledge Map which will be keeping pace with guidelines and changes in legislation as they continue to emerge.
To access the Green Deal Knowledge Map click here.
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£25 Million Grant Announced for Biomass, Heat Pumps and Solar Yhermal
23rd April 2012
The second phase of the Renewable Heat Incentive RHI for domestic renewable heat systems, (the first of which was for commercial) was originally intended to commence in October 2012 but will now be delayed, probably until summer 2013.
In announcing the delay of domestic RHI, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) also announced the availability, from 2nd April 2012, of a second tranche of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP).
RHPP is an interim measure for domestic properties, pending the start of domestic RHI. Rather than the provision of long term financial support for eligible equipment, the RHPP scheme involves the provision of a single direct payment to subsidise the installation of renewable heating systems in domestic properties.
The payment is towards the equipment and installation costs of renewable technologies like biomass boilers, air and ground source heat pumps and solar thermal panels.
This above is an extract from an article posted recently on the Sustainable Homes website.
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Make the Most of the Showers
24th April 2012
The latest edition of Energywire has been published online by the Energy Saving Trust.
It includes the advice - "Don't let those precious rain showers go to waste. Follow our step-by-step instructions to install your own water butt and keep your garden hydrated."
And the advice is worth a read - taking you through the easy to follow stages for installing a water butt. There is a bit more involved than simply placing a water butt outside but it's not too complex.
It's certainly an economical way of overcoming the hose pipe bans.
