Free Biomass Model Offered to Social Landlords
2nd July 2012
An energy saving solutions specialist is offering free biomass boilers to help social landlords cut carbon emissions and reduce fuel bills.
Strategic Energy has an all-equity model that means there are no upfront capital costs or on-going maintenance fees.
In a similar way to how the Feed-in Tariff system works for solar panels, Strategic Energy receives a payback fee from the Government's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for the amount of heat produced.
Partnerships with leading financial and legal advisers and green technology investment organisations, has also seen Strategic Energy develop suites of documentation to streamline the installation process.
Strategic Energy's UK Biomass Operations Manager, Rudie Humphrey, said:
"Due to their very nature, buildings that benefit the most from biomass boilers are using oil or liquefied petroleum gas and therefore it costs a lot to heat them.
"We can cut the capital cost significantly and with improved efficiency we can even compete with gas as prices rise.
"So a biomass boiler is a vital piece of renewable technology to install as it drastically improves energy performance, slashes carbon emissions by using sustainable fuel and provides considerable savings on operational costs.
"Our pure equity fully funded model means there's no capital outlay or maintenance costs for the boiler for landlords."
The process offsets the release of carbon dioxide by the absorbing the gas in the original growth of the biomass or captured in the growth of the replacement material.
It results in biomass boilers being carbon lean in comparison with traditional sources of heating such as oil, gas and electricity.
Biomass also has many other sustainable benefits such as diverting resources from landfill to be used for fuel and reduced exposure to climate change legislation.
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Green Deal Options Guide for Social Landlords Published
30th July 2012
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and Sustainable Homes published Dealing Green: Options for Registered Providers, designed to help the sector realise the benefits of the Green Deal for their business and their residents.
The guide sets out options for how Registered Providers and local authorities can get involved in the Government's Green Deal initiative to make 14 million homes more energy efficient by 2020.
As part of its enabling role, the HCA has supported the guide so that it can inform registered providers and help them best take advantage of the Green Deal.
Both the Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) are described in the guide, as are the implications for providers of social housing.
The guide also outlines the key decisions that they need to make, and suggests the risks and advantages attached.
The Green Deal Regulations were published by the Department of Energy and Climate Change on 11 June 2012, and will come into force in October this year.
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New Fund Helps Doncaster Homes Become More Energy Efficient
30th July 2012
Homeowners in a Doncaster suburb are in line to receive a free energy efficiency make-over worth up to £9,500, which could see them save hundreds on their annual energy bills while bringing many of the most vulnerable households out of fuel poverty.
Doncaster Council has teamed up with national energy efficiency solutions company Anesco, who will manage the 'green' upgrades that are to be carried out on 325 properties in Dunscroft. 200 of the homes receiving the work are private houses, with a further 125 council homes receiving the makeover.
The upgrades are being funded as part of the Government's Community Energy Savings Programme, which targets households based in areas of low income in the UK to improve energy efficiency standards and reduce fuel bills.
The project is also expected to help raise many homes out of fuel poverty, while improving the local area. The potential annual energy savings generated for each household include around £175 for loft insulation, £475 for external wall insulation and £300 for those properties where an old gas boiler is replaced with an A-rated high-efficiency condensing boiler.
