There are a variety of government schemes available for those wanting to consider using renewable energy solutions to help develop their homes or businesses. It can be a complex area to fully understand – please call us and we can help guide you through the maze!
At a glance:
A renewable energy system can now pay for itself within 10 years
Your extra energy is sold back above the market rate (inflation proofed)
Guaranteed long term Government legislated contracts
Whilst most people traditionally invest in renewable energy purely for environmental reasons, the Government’s new Feed-in-Tariff legislation now adds a substantial financial incentive for you to invest in your own electricity-generation system in the workplace or at home.
You’ll also be interested in the new Renewable Heat Incentive that commenced in April 2011 for commercial installations and that will expand to domestic house installations in April 2012. This RHI legislation is similar to the electrical Feed-In-Tariff, in that it will pay you at set tariff rates for all the renewable heat energy you generate at home, at your workplace, or within your community, even if you use that energy yourself.
As approved renewable energy installers under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, we will ensure that any installation we undertake for you will automatically qualify or even pre-qualify for the relevant scheme.
The Feed-in-Tarriff
The Feed-in-Tariff guarantees to pay you at above market rate for all the electricity you generate at your home or place of work, and with all payments effectively inflation-proofed through being index-linked to the Retail Price Index and guaranteed in law for up to 25-years, using our experienced renewable energy installers to help design a system that suits you, investing in your own solar PV system has never made so much sense!
At a glance:
25 year Government-backed contract (legally bound)
Get paid at above market-rate for electricity you use!
Contract can be sold on if you move
Depending on the size and type of solar PV system you have installed, under the Feed-in-Tariff you will be paid up to 43.3 pence for every kilowatt of energy you generate, even if you then use this electricity yourself!
In addition, you’ll stand to receive an additional 3.1 pence for every kilowatt you export back into the national grid too – when your system is generating and you are out of the house at work and not using the electricity yourself!
Not bad, particularly when you consider that you are probably paying around 11 or 12 pence/kW to buy electricity yourself!
Plus of course, because you are now generating your own electricity on site, you reduce the amount of power you have to buy from the grid, further improving your finances!
And that’s not to mention the added value to your property in having your own on-site Microgeneration system should you come to sell! Our suitably qualified renewable energy installers can give you more details and advice on how this works.
People are often very interested too about the payback period on their initial investment on solar energy systems. According to the Government, the Feed-in-Tariff rates have been set to earn up to 8% per annum, meaning that the capital costs should be recouped during the 25 year tariff period two or three times over, or to put it another way a payback on investment period of 8 to 10 years.
The Re-newable Heat Incentive (RHI)
There are various rates for all the different Microgeneration technologies as detailed on the graph on this page, but all repayments to you from using the Renewable Heat Incentive will be made annually based on your system performance, they will be inflation-linked and tax free, and the tariffs will repay you for up to 20 years!
At a glance:
20 year Government-backed contract (legally bound)
Tax free returns of up to £1500 a year
Contract can be sold on to the new owner if you move
What’s more, according to Government figures, the Renewable Heat Incentive tariff levels have been designed to earn an average 12% return p/a for heat pumps installed by qualified renewable energy installers and 6% on solar heating solutions meaning that your initial capital costs invested should be earned back with plenty of interest over the respective tariff periods.
The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme may of course alter slightly from time to time, but for a typical solar heating solution installed by competent solar panel installers into a domestic home we would expect repayments of perhaps £250-350 p/a, plus gas or oil cost savings additionally.
For a heat pump installation, annual repayments of several thousand pounds could be expected depending on the size of the heat pump and the renewable energy it generates.
With the RHI for domestic house installations not starting until April 2012, we always ensure our installations pre-qualify by meeting all standards. There will also be a one-off Renewable Heat Premium Payment for these systems for 2011/2012, until the RHI begins next year.
We always provide our customers with personal illustrations and quotations for all of the proposed work to be carried out. Please contact us now if you want more information on how you can qualify under the Renewable Heat Incentive or the Feed-In-Tariff!
