Is Biomass the Big Winner Under the UK's Domestic RHI Scheme?
London, 18th September 2014 -- On April 9th 2014, the Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive was finally launched in the UK. The UK's Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is the world’s first long-term financial support programme for renewable heat and the domestic branch of the scheme has been eagerly awaited.
Energy website Green Business Watch has recently launched its UK Domestic Renewable Heat Update – September 2014. The report is an analysis of UK renewable heat installations since the launch of the Domestic RHI.
The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive is a UK Government scheme to encourage the use of renewable heating technologies.
Under the scheme, householders receive quarterly payments for a period of 7 years based on the amount of renewable heat their system produces.
The domestic RHI provides support for biomass, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and solar thermal. The tariffs have been set at a level that reflects the expected cost of renewable heat generation over 20 years and should make renewable heating a viable option when set against the costs of conventional heating systems.
Applications for the Domestic RHI underline the strong performance of Air Source Heat Pumps in the domestic market over the last few years but early indications are that the big winner under the new scheme may be Biomass.
From the launch of the scheme on April 9th 2014 to the end of July 2014, the Domestic RHI had received applications for 1,046 new renewable heat installations. After a modest start, the scheme has seen growth in installation numbers month on month. The big winner so far seems to be biomass which accounts for only 18% of legacy installations but 41% of new installations.
Alastair Kay, Editor of Green Business Watch had the following to say:
“When you look at applications for installations since the Domestic RHI was launched, air source heat pumps remain strong and are 33% of the total. What jumps out though, is 41% of new installations are biomass systems. It is very early days as the scheme has only been going for a few months but so far biomass looks to have seen big gains.”
“To date, the vast bulk of applications are legacy applications and this tells us more about what happened over the last few years than what is happening now. The real question I think we'd like to get the bottom of is whether the Domestic RHI is succeeding in encouraging the adoption of renewable heat. On that front signs are good and things seem to be picking up.”
It remains to be seen whether this new incentive scheme can help stimulate the adoption of renewable heat in UK homes but early numbers suggest it has certainly increased adoption of biomass.
Customer comments
No comments were found for Is Biomass the Big Winner Under the UK's Domestic RHI Scheme?. Be the first to comment!