Green Energy Republic

The RHI - how it could work

After much recent speculation about the fate of the Renewable Heat Incentive in the upcoming comprehensive spending review, nuggets of hope from the Conservative Party Conference yesterday. In his speech, Minister of State in the cabinet office Oliver Letwin, MP confirmed the Government’s support for an RHI: “Our incentive for renewable heat will bring forward the generation of heat from waste and other renewable sources - a crucial part of cutting carbon and maintaining energy security,” he said. As our CEO Juliet Davenport commented, "It’s great news the Government is supporting the Renewable Heat Incentive – now we need to hear the details and find out the level of payments and how it will be delivered."

Not surprisingly, we’ve got our own ideas about this.

Heat accounts for 47% of the UK’s carbon emissions, while renewable heat is currently only 1% of overall heat demand. An effective RHI is an essential step towards a low-carbon future, and could boost this to as much as 12%. Good Energy has been offering our own version of the RHI – HotRocs – since September 2008. The way this works is that our gas customers pay a small levy which creates a pot of money to spend on research and to provide our customers with solar thermal installations a payment of 4.5p/kWh of deemed heat produced. The Good Energy HotRocs initiative currently supports over 450 solar thermal users, equating to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 270 tonnes a year.

An equivalent UK-wide scheme for renewable heat based on the current FiT scheme would be simple to implement.

Here’s how it could work:

	Feed-in Tariff	Renewable Heat Incentive
Levy upon	Licensed electricity suppliers	Licensed gas suppliers
Paid by	Mandatory & voluntary FiT Suppliers (subset of above)	Mandatory & voluntary RHI Suppliers (subset of above)
Paid on	Total metered generation & deemed or metered export	Deemed heat production
Validation by	MCS	MCS
Administered by	Ofgem e-serve	Ofgem e-serve

Because of the support gas customers received from government when building the gas grid – which off-gas-grid users have not benefitted from – the levy should be solely on gas suppliers. Off-gas-grid users should be entitled to the support of the RHI without cost to compensate for the earlier financial losses. As with the FiT, off-gas-grid customers should be able to request that a mandatory RHI supplier acts as their RHI provider, even though they are not a gas customer.

Heat metering is expensive, but deeming heat production is a recognised methodology, and field trials by various organisations such as the Energy Savings Trust are improving it all the time, making the RHI simpler than the FiT.

Administering the RHI and possibly the FiT will also be more cost-effective for both Ofgem e-serve and the Utility companies if it is done by cloning the existing FiT systems. This would save costs which are ultimately borne by energy customers.

A UK-wide RHI will also be instrumental in addressing fuel poverty as, like FiT, it provides an opportunity for social and private landlords to earn an income in return for their investment in renewable technology, whilst providing free heat to their tenants.

We know it can work because we’re already doing it.

Our partners Friends of the Earth have launched a campaign calling for the government to introduce the RHI – please show your support by writing to your MP. Together we do this.

Roofs, yes. But PV or not PV – that’s the question

Secret files on solar energy collaborator, Part 1:  Dave Hampton

EVIDENCE
9-panel, 1.66KWpeak, photovoltaic (PV) solar panel installation

LOCATION
on the Carbon Coach’s home in Marlow, Bucks

COST
£10,000 all inc

SUPPLIER
Freesource, Good Energy’s chosen renewable energy installation partner

ACCOMPLICES
Transition Town Marlow 100 Solar Panel project:http://www.transitionmarlow.org/index.php?p=1_2_Solar

The low-carbon detectives are on my trail. Here’s my review of the installation.

I am delighted to report that my PV panels are up, on the roof, and generating much clean raw power, plus useful cash.  The panels are of course being very closely watched and monitored, by me, and by my friends and Marlow neighbours.

They make me feel deeply and inordinately happy. I get waves of pleasure just to see my powerful panels and to witness their production of sustainable energy.

They look good, feel good, are in good taste, and, by golly, they do you good!

Hi-visibility roof coat
My installation is on the side roof, the exposed side of our house which is on a corner plot.  The nett (curtain) effect of which is that my panels are quite noticeable to passers by. I view my panels with as much awe and admiration as I would a Picasso original. They are both a work of genius.

The elegant clean lines, the silver and dark blue crystalline refraction/reflection effect, the large-tile-upon-small-tile pyramid cubist design. The light and shade, the diametric composition of juxtaposition and orthogonality…

None of my neighbours seems unhappy about the installation. One said he didn’t exactly find them attractive, but neither did he notice them much. Most neighbours are interested in how we get on with them.

One household is having a survey, and is currently deciding if they want to go solar.  I hope they will.

Local nuclear – or new clear vision

If some people insist they really ‘don’t like the look’, then I suppose I could ask them if they would prefer a small local nuclear power station – somewhere near them – in Marlow on (cooling water) Thames instead?

Some of my friends are positive or neutral about nuclear, but I don’t think any would welcome it within 50 miles of their home town, let alone bolted onto their roof. Like my micro ‘nuke’ is…

My solar PV installation is in effect a local nuclear power harnessing plant, human scale, with the core reactor located a nice, safe distance away. (93 million miles: The Sun.)

The waste trail you don’t see
Upstream in the supply chain, to make my solar panels and kit, if you think about it, is an alarming trail of waste, mining, manufacturing and energy use, from all over the world. Long before they generate their first unit of clean power in Marlow, my beloved panels have left some sort of trail of pollution behind them. But here’s the deal. It’s not big.

In ball park terms, the upstream damage, the ‘eco-baggage’ that my panels arrived with from day one, amounts to some 1000kg of greenhouse gas equivalent impact. They will pay that back in full within two years.  They will sweep up all their own eco-mess, their footprint in manufacture etc, during the first two years of operation.  Thereafter, for the next 20 years or more, they will be sweeping up other people’s pollution – and fully be in (planetary) credit, increasingly so, for each year they keep on keeping on.

In carbon terms, my panels weigh less than minus 10 tons – over their lifetime!

This thought gives me a little lift.  Like the balloons in the movie ‘UP’, my panels uplift me.

In less than 20 years, well before my 70th birthday, my panels will have saved a nett 10 tons of CO2, after taking into account the CO2 involved in manufacture and transport. And they will have saved, at a power station, over their lifetime, the equivalent of around 20 barrels of oil being burnt as well. Picture all that fossil fuel being left in the ground.

The whole process of old-fashioned power generation, from the oil well, coal mine, fuel extraction, fuel intake, the waste streams (heat, smoke, spent fuel) and all the risks, is fully concealed from us. It takes place many miles away, behind concrete walls, with coal trucks, smoking chimneys and warmed up local rivers the only tell-tell signs. In contrast, PV panels are open, transparent, risk free and locally autonomous.  Also, the more they generate, the more they don’t pollute, whereas the more power old-fashioned fossil or nuclear plants generate, the more they pollute, and the higher the bill, until eventually they cost us the Earth.

Each PV panel ever made has effectively a negative legacy footprint on the world. It is also carbon quids-in, providing it is given a nice roof to sit on, and a nice home to power for life. The technology is ecologically restorative, when it displaces dirtier generation.

The more PV we use, the less CO2 we put into the atmosphere overall.
In this sense, planting PV panels on your roof is almost as good as planting a tree.

Put your money where your roof is

Despite knowing all this, it still took me five years to take the PV plunge. And to save up the money. When we eco-refurbished our entire house five years ago, we satisfied ourselves with just a solar hot water panel (and a small token PV panel for the pump for the solar system.) But I had set aside an area of south-facing roof. It was designated for PV one day.

£10,000 is a shed-load of money

Let’s get the big, scary number out of the way.

£10,000 (fully inc).
£10,000 is a shed-load of money. It’s a roof-full of PV.  It’s also on a par with an ISA, or a slice of pension fund, going without a new car for a few years, or missing out on a family foreign holiday or two.  I appreciate it is still a shed-load of money, and I know I was lucky to be able to do it, and not everyone can. 

If you are a homeowner, the ‘asset value of the home’ is a moot point, as no-one really knows what the asset value is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if our home would raise £10k more on the open market than a similar property without the PV panels.  So you can view it as home improvement.

And Home improvement too – with a capital H. 
Sooner or later we need to start living on our HOME planet as if we intend to stay here forever. See ‘HOME’ the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

It is possible my kids will benefit more from the legacy of millions of solar panels than they ever will from the legacy of £1000s in my will.  Is PV making my WILL POWER-ful?  Globally, there need be no shortage of will power.

Rent
"No generation has a freehold on this Earth. All we have is a life-tenancy—with a full repairing lease." Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher MP
If you rent your home, there is every reason to lobby your landlord or the council to fit PVs.  Many landlords are already considering doing this. Your voice in support could tip them into action.  You may even be able to help educate them about the grants, Feed in Tariffs (e.g. business benefits, etc. Don’t assume they know all about how good it can be.)

PV is a well-kept secret that the nice fossil companies don’t really want people to discover...yet...

The Numbers
I don’t want to throw too many numbers at you, but here is the deal.  Depending on the weather, rain, cloud or shine, my panels generate about 10 to 70 pence an hour during daytime. 

On a bright day, and averaged over 24 hours, my nine panels supply ALL my electricity needs. Over an entire year, I expect them to generate around a THIRD of all that we use.
Over a year we expect the savings, plus the Feed in Tariff income, to be worth £800.

Our energy provider, Good Energy, won’t be sending us bills. They will be sending us cheques! Cheques for the (government enhanced) value of all the FiT power we generate, less the small cost of the energy we import.  

Next week I will be reviewing the highly acclaimed ‘Wattson’ remote energy display meter which is the perfect accompaniment to a PV installation.

Dave Hampton

The Carbon Coach

http://www.carboncoach.com/

Overcoming the barriers to microgeneration

In a four-part series we've been researching the barriers to generating independent renewable energy, and here we suggest some potential solutions to the problems.

Week 4 - Access to Information & Consumer confidence

Anyone investing in microgeneration will need between £4,000 and £25,000 to get set up. This is significant expenditure for any household and the homeowner wants peace of mind that they are opting for the right technology at the right scale and the right people to install it.

Our survey confirmed our perception that people found it difficult to access detailed, informative, impartial and reliable information on microgeneration.

Homeowners find it hard to understand which technology they will benefit from most, because they don’t necessarily know how a home uses, conserves and wastes heat and power. They’re also concerned that the most detailed and useful information comes from microgeneration installers that they could not view as impartial because they were selling a product.

Good Energy, despite having a commercial interest, has tried to fill the information vacuum through our website www.generateyourown.co.uk. This recommends a stepped approach for homeowners to follow guiding them through decision making on technology, identifying installers, identifying products, accessing finance and grants and getting paid for the energy generated.

The Energy Saving Trust has also recently expanded its resources on microgeneration to help homeowners with their decision making.

As companies in this industry establish their brands and certifying bodies such as the Microgeneration Certification Scheme become more recognisable, the information they provide should be more trusted by homeowners.  

Keep an eye out around June as Good Energy will be launching an online forum giving people an opportunity to share knowledge and experience in this field.

Consumer Confidence

Closely linked to the access of information about microgeneration is the confidence - or lack of confidence - consumers have in microgeneration in relation to the products and the installers. Our  awareness of this lack of confidence was a motivator for providing a service in the market. Good Energy’s customers were expressing an interest in microgeneration but also a concern that it was difficult for a homeowner to identify which installers in the market had the skill and experience to provide excellent service. Good Energy undertook independent research to evaluate a number of installers and, through the www.generateyourown.co.uk website, recommends a shortlist.

Accreditation of products and installation companies is essential and is being delivered through the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS).  While the value of this accreditation process is understood and appreciated within the industry, it will take time for consumers to develop the requisite trust and understanding for the MCS to deliver widespread consumer confidence in microgeneration.

A concern that Good Energy has noted several times is the cost of the accreditation process for both installers and products. These costs present obstacles for start-up companies and some homeowners believe the cost of accreditation is reflected in the price they pay. This is causing some consumers to opt for non-accredited products and installers. This directly contravenes what the MCS should be achieving and is pushing some homeowners away instead of towards accredited products and services. This may result in some homeowners paying for bad products, badly installed.

This is not what we want to see.

While it is likely that the MCS will help to safeguard most homeowners, the costs of accreditation must be kept to a minimum to ensure fairness for new microgeneration market entrants and affordability for homeowners.

Conclusion

Over the last four weeks we have looked at the barriers to independent renewable energy generation and made some suggestions for how they can be resolved. Please let us know what you think too. If you’re interested in generating your own energy the best place to start is www.generateyourown.co.uk

 

Overcoming the obstacles to microgeneration

In a four-part series we've been researching the barriers to generating independent renewable energy, and here we suggest some potential solutions to the problems.

Week 3 – Planning

A wide range of issues get filed under planning. For fear of you falling asleep at your computer, in this blog we will focus on

• The process of planning application and approval
• Planning directives

The process of planning application and approval
In April 2008 Permitted Development Orders (PDO) were introduced to simplify the process for installing solar PV panels, solar thermal panels, ground source heat pumps and biomass heating systems. However these PDOs do not apply to properties in conservation areas or to listed buildings. Also, PDOs have not been introduced for small-scale wind turbines and air source heat pumps.

Broadly, the PDOs have been well designed and have simplified the process of installing the widely applicable technologies such as solar, enabling wider uptake. Issues have arisen where planning officers within local authorities have failed to incorporate the PDOs into their processes or when a PDO does not apply (e.g. conservation areas), the officers have failed to use sufficient initiative and collaborate with the homeowner. This has resulted in protracted and intensive projects for homeowners, some of which are never completed despite their being no real reason for their failure.

Often the homeowner pinpoints the problem as being a lack of understanding within the planning department and planning officers. Better training and imposing standard procedures that would allow microgeneration projects that sit both in and outside of PDOs to be assessed and approved/declined more quickly and more efficiently would help.

Exactly where this training can come from, and more importantly how it should be funded, is a point for discussion, and we welcome comments on this blog. The information and the training could be delivered through the government website www.planningportal.gov.uk. Resources at this website on PDOs and planning issues for microgeneration could be expanded, forming the basis of more detailed training.

Two possible sources would be the Carbon Emissions Reduction Targets (CERT) scheme that applies to the larger energy suppliers; and the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, the body responsible for assessing and delivering accreditation to both microgeneration products and installers.

Planning directives
The government has ambitious targets for building new homes and by 2016 all new homes that are built are to be zero carbon. Exactly what “zero carbon” means nobody is quite sure. Oh well, sweep that under the carpet for now! The challenges are significant but they present opportunities for microgeneration. The results of our survey suggest that simple amendments can be made to planning directives to trigger growth in microgeneration.

For example, it should be mandatory that all new homes are built with microgeneration systems integrated. This would build on the Merton Rule, a forward-thinking district that stated that all new development should be sourcing at least 10% of its energy requirement from onsite renewable energy generation.

In addition, all new housing stock should be designed so that the roof pitch and orientation of the roof pitch maximises the potential for harnessing solar energy. This would ensure that any solar microgeneration installed during the build or fitted retrospectively would make the most of the potential solar resource.  

________________________

Next week we will look at access to information and consumer confidence

Overcoming the obstacles to microgeneration

In a four-part series we've been researching the barriers to generating independent renewable energy, and here we suggest some potential solutions to the problems.

Week 2 - Finance

People are motivated to install microgeneration systems for environmental, self-sufficiency and - with the arrival of the Feed-in Tariff - economic reasons, but a major barrier for many is the initial capital outlay. Microgeneration installations can cost between £4,000 and £25,000. Access to sums of capital of this size is not realistic for the majority of UK homeowners.

So how do we get around this?

Grant funding
Grant funding through phase 1 of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) used to provide a valuable means for accessing capital for microgenerators. However, our experience was that many microgeneration installation companies found the grant system difficult to work with. Grants tend to create a ‘synthetic’ and unstable market and, while a business can grow when it offers a product that can be heavily subsidised, once that subsidy is removed it jeopardises the security and further growth of these companies. The LCBP grants are now being phased out.

It is not only at the sub 50kW microgeneration level where access to capital is a challenge. Projects that require an investment of up to £20 million, such as 10 -20MW wind farms powering 10-15,000 homes, are finding it hard to attract the investment they need.

Financing is a critical obstacle but there are existing lending models that can be adapted and offered to installers of microgeneration. Here are some of our suggestions:

Government Interest-Free loans
Under the terms of the Feed-in Tariff, the accredited generator can nominate who is to receive the Feed-in Tariff payments. The government could provide interest-free loans to microgenerators much as it does to UK students to fund their education. The lending body (similar to the Student Loans Company) could be nominated as the recipient of the Feed-in Tariff payment which would deliver security to the lender as the payments would be made regularly by the energy supplier that was delivering the Feed-in Tariff service.

There would be an option to assign the loan to the property or to the homeowner, depending on the intentions of the homeowner and how long they anticipated they would live in the house. This might alter the risk profile of the loan application but could be adapted accordingly.

Top-up grants
Many local authorities across the UK offer top-up grants for residents installing microgeneration. These can be as much as £1000 and can be counted towards a local authority’s carbon reduction targets. While it was stated above that grants do not help to stabilise a young market, Good Energy believes that sums below £1000 will help incentivise residents but are small enough that they do not challenge the stability of installation companies.

We think Local Authorities should be encouraged to offer top-up grants and their availability should be communicated clearly to the region’s residents.

Commercial loans
At both microgeneration scale and small commercial scale up to 20MW, the nationalised high street banks should be instructed to offer debt finance. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB have accessed funds through the European Investment Bank (EIB) and been instructed to make investment funds available for large-scale renewables but this does not provide for entrepreneurial landowners or independent developers.

An amount of EIB funds should be ring fenced for generators of 5MW or less which are eligible for the Feed-in Tariff. These loans can operate on similar principles to the government interest-free loans: the lending body could be nominated as the recipient of the Feed-in Tariff payment which would deliver security to the lender as the payments would be made regularly by the energy supplier that was delivering the Feed-in Tariff service.

These loans can be offered at a commercial rate, generating secure income for the banks.

Local Credit Unions
Credit unions are financial co-operatives owned and controlled by their members. They offer savings and low interest loans to local borrowers. They are primarily a social enterprise and are not solely focused on commercial return. Microgeneration projects can offer secure investment opportunities for credit unions and credit unions can offer suitable access to finance for homeowners wanting to install microgeneration.

Involving credit unions with microgenerators should be relatively simple to encourage. Principally, the challenge is to improve communication and educate homeowners interested in microgeneration about the existence of credit unions and make credit unions aware of the safe investment opportunities presented by microgeneration projects.

As Local Authorities are often linked with credit unions, they could communicate the opportunities to homeowners.
  
Tax Efficient Investments
Access to debt financing for small commercial scale renewable energy projects can be challenging to obtain, as can access to equity investment. There is a need to stimulate the creation of more tax efficient investment opportunities, such as a Venture Capital Trust (VCT) that will deliver more equity investment into viable renewable energy projects.

To encourage the introduction of new VCTs that focus strongly on renewable energy investments, we recommend that HM Revenue and Customs review the terms for companies qualifying, and adapt the criteria to make investment in Renewable Energy Developments increasingly attractive.

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Next week we will look at planning renewable energy projects…

Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs – election update

We’ve had a few phone calls from customers asking us which party offers the best support for microgenerators. Well, here at Good Energy we try and stay politically neutral – we want to ensure that climate change and a sensible renewable energy policy are high on the agenda for all parties.

But with an election looming, we think it’s time for an update on our campaign for a Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs -- and what the main parties’ positions are.

In case you missed it, our campaign is about getting a better deal for early adopters of microgeneration technology. Under the FiT scheme introduced on April 1st by the current Labour government,  those who installed their technology before July 15th 2009 will be getting a much lower payment (9p a unit) than those who were accredited after that date (up to 41.3p). We believe that green energy entrepreneurs should not be worse off under the new scheme. So we’ve been campaigning for a change in the legislation to ensure they get the recognition they deserve. See more here.

Before parliament was dissolved for the start of the election campaign, Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael tabled an Early Day Motion on this issue. Some 96 MPs signed the motion, which is a great result.

The largest group of signatories by party was the Lib Dems, with 40 of their group of 60 MPs adding their names to the motion. However, their front bench energy team has yet to make a statement openly supporting the campaign.

By contrast, the Conservatives have publicly promised to change the law if they get elected, saying “within fair and appropriate conditions, we will allow capacity that was installed without public subsidy before the start of the feed-in tariff scheme to qualify for the tariffs.”

Of course, a lot depends on what they mean by ‘fair and appropriate conditions’.

Meanwhile, we’ve heard nothing from Labour – but then, as their government was responsible for what we’re campaigning against in the first place, perhaps that’s not surprising.

We’ll be looking in greater depth at the different parties’ broader manifestos for the environment on the blog over the next few days – so watch this space.

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Our friends over at Friends of the Earth are running a great campaign on the issue. Friends of the Earth's letter to the three main parties and their full responses can be seen at: www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/decentrailed_energy_letter.pdf

And take a look at their blog here: http://election.foe.co.uk/blog/entry/a-landslide-in-favour-of-renewable-energy-in-the-home/

Overcoming obstacles to independent energy generation

By Hugo House

Using microgeneration technology to produce heat and power at home could deliver large amounts of energy, help increase the UK’s energy security, reduce our carbon emissions and have a positive influence on consumer behaviour towards energy use.

So why are only around 100,000 homes in the UK generating energy using micro-scale renewable technologies? This is what we’ll have a crack at answering here, and hopefully dispelling some myths. At Good Energy we’ve developed a wealth of expertise and experience in this field as we’ve been successfully encouraging our customers to become generators. So much so that one in 25 of our customers is now a renewable energy generator. We help them along every step of the way, from choosing products to selling their power.

The majority of these sites are using solar heating. The rate of adoption of technologies that generate electricity is far lower, especially when compared to other European states such as Germany.

We believe that the slow uptake of microgeneration in the UK is due to several barriers:

• remuneration, which challenges the economic viability of projects;
• finance, where homeowners are unable to access the capital to fund a project;
• planning, where the knowledge of planning departments and the processes they follow are not adequately developed;
• access to information, where the homeowner struggles to find the information to identify the right solution for their home; and
• consumer confidence, where homeowners do not have the confidence to pursue a microgeneration project because quality assurance for microgeneration projects and installation companies has been hard to identify.

In a 4 part series we’ll deal with these issues one by one.

It’s worth noting first though that things are getting better as some of these barriers are starting to come down. In principle, the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff will ease the economic barrier, allowing many homeowners to install microgeneration systems and receive an attractive return on their investment.

Planning has also improved. Permitted Development Orders are helping streamline planning applications for many homeowners.

However, obstacles still remain - and we believe these need to be addressed if the government’s target of 750,000 microgenerators is to be met.

Lets take a look in more detail at overcoming the remuneration issue. 

 

Week 1 - Remuneration

Money money money. While the economics of microgeneration may be less attractive than large scale commercial projects, there are still plenty of people that are willing to invest in small-scale projects.

To date, microgenerators have been motivated primarily by

• a commitment to conserving the environment and wanting to reduce their carbon footprint; and/or
• a commitment to self sufficiency wanting to reduce their reliance on companies providing them products such as heating fuels and electricity (energy security).

Until the announcement of the Feed-in Tariffs, very few people adopted microgeneration for purely economic reasons – one reason why the uptake of microgeneration in the UK has been low.

There are two great macro-economic advantages in stimulating people to invest in their own heat and power generating systems. By encouraging people to spend their own money on generation that can meet a significant proportion of the UK’s energy needs for the next 20 years, the government has less need to subsidise large scale, centralised energy systems. That stimulation then creates ‘green collar’ jobs as manufacturers, consultants, installers and after-sales service providers are all required to support a growing microgeneration industry.

The launch of the Feed-in Tariff brings the UK a significant step closer to triggering meaningful growth in the microgeneration industry. Developing an appropriate Feed-in Tariff wouldn’t have been possible without the wealth and depth of expertise that the industry has acquired thanks to the pioneering early adopters of microgeneration systems.

The government’s decision to exclude the early adopters from the full rates of the Feed-in Tariff has been met with disbelief and outrage throughout the industry. Our own based on the projected growth of microgeneration under the Feed-in Tariff indicate that offering the early adopters the full rates of the Feed-in Tariff would increase the cost of operating the FiT over its lifetime by less than one percent.

While we recognise the economic argument in favour of incentivising new rather than rewarding old microgenerators, we think there is a fundamental and dangerous flaw that has the potential to damage the ongoing progress and improvement of this country:

If people feel they risk being penalised through exclusion from benefits that others will be entitled to simply because they are early adopters of a ‘new way’ then we are in danger of breeding out the pioneers from our society. If, as a nation, we lose our shepherds, the government alone will not be able to guide the sheep.

Good Energy believes that the UK’s existing microgenerators should have their remuneration under the Feed-in Tariff increased to a rate that is accepted as fair and reasonable by the microgeneration community. This is not just to benefit those microgenerators but also to reassure the UK’s more innovative and progressive citizens – a vital national asset.

So, we’ve launched a campaign and so far 74 MPs have signed an EDM giving us backing. Join our campaign here.

We will be offering a Feed in Tariff payment to our customers on April 1st when it comes into play. We are also one step ahead of the government by offering a payback scheme for renewable heating with our HotRocs scheme.

Next week we will look at financing renewable energy projects…

Solar case study: John Rhodes

John Rhodes in Bedfordshire is harnessing the sun's power and turning it into his own green electricity.

John is an old hand at solar generation - he's had a solar thermal system on his roof for the past five years which takes care of about 75% of his annual hot water needs. One of the first to join Good Energy's HotROCs scheme - which is funded by Good Energy Gas customers - he earns about £86 a year from us for the heat he generates, as well as saving money on heating his hot water.

John was so pleased with the performance of his solar thermals that he's gone a step further, and had a 10-panel 1.8 kWp Solar PV system installed on his roof, so he can start generating clean, green electricity.

"We try and follow a green lifestyle," John explains. "We do a lot of recycling and have a rainwater harvesting system for flushing toilets. I've always wanted solar PV, and when I saw it was available from the Good Energy Shop and Sundog for a good price, around £10,000, I decided to go ahead."

With interest rates at rock bottom, the attractions of solar PV are not only ecological but also financial. As a customer of Good Energy's HomeGen scheme, he'll earn 15p per kWh he generates, the highest rate in the market. John says, "At the moment, it's better to have your money on the roof than in the bank."

To find out how you can start the journey to generating your own energy, visit our new website www.generateyourown.co.uk

 

Solar Power case study: AVAG Bristol

In our series of case studies on generating your own electricity at home meet the Ashley Vale Action Group:

Who: Jackson Moulding and Anna Hope
Where: Bristol
What: Solar PV
Size: 1 kW
Makes: 880 kWh per year
Average equivalent saving: 0.4 tonnes of CO2 per year
Earns: around £130 per year

THE AVAG STORY

Jackson, Anna and their baby daughter, Sylva, live in Ashley Vale, Bristol, where Ashley Vale Action Group (AVAG), a community of self builders, has turned a brown field site into sustainable homes for over 40 families. Many in the community have chosen to use high levels of insulation and environmentally friendly building materials, and to incorporate solar thermal technology to heat their water and Solar PV panels to generate their electricity.

Jackson said, “We began building here in 2001 and our mission behind the project was to build homes that would benefit the community and the environment. Being able to produce our own energy was high on the agenda and collectively we have installed over 20 kW of Photo Voltaic (PV) solar panels to generate electricity. Many of the homes here are signed up to Good Energy which pays us 15p for every unit of electricity we generate.

About a third of the UK’s carbon emissions come from our homes - we can dramatically reduce our impact on Climate Change by building better houses. The homes here use less energy because solar power produces our hot water and electricity and they need less energy thanks to their architectural design and high insulation. These are great homes to live in that are helping to protect tomorrow’s environment.”

For more information about AVAG, visit their website

For more information on Good Energy and our payback schemes for generating your own energy visit us here.

Good Energy Shop Team

Solar case study: Tim and Fiona Start

• Region: Herefordshire
• Owners: Tim and Fiona Start
• Type of installation: 3 kW Solar PV
• Annual Generation: 2.3 MWh
• Annual CO2 saving: 1.4 tonnes
• Annual credit from Good Energy: £345
• Cost of installation: £16,300
• Size of Grant: £7,500 

In May 2006 Tim and Fiona Start installed a 3 kW solar array at their home in Herefordshire. Tim and Fiona love the rural setting in which they live and care for their environment. It’s difficult to have a small carbon footprint when you live in a Victorian house in a rural area, but they take simple, effective measures like walking, cycling and using public transport (but not flying).

They grow their own vegetables and buy local produce, preferring to shop locally and creatively (and secondhand where possible). They practice recycling and composting and opt against an overly warm centrally heated house - they heat their home with woodburners running on offcuts.

Since installing their solar panels the Starts have really begun to make big cuts to their carbon emissions.

“The roof on our house faces south. So we knew that solar panels would make the most of the sun’s energy. Our 3 kW array produces about three quarters of the electricity we have needed until now. The remainder is supplied by Good Energy which sources all its power from renewable generation. We hope also to install solar thermal panels, which will save a lot of electricity by significantly reducing the need for an immersion heater. A wind turbine might be on the cards as well, eventually.

“We believe that climate change is a threat to us all but we realise that there are so many things we can do to become part of the solution. Generating our electricity from solar power is just one way that we can really make a difference.”

Tim and Fiona Start 

To learn more about Good Energy's buy back schemes click here. 

To buy solar panels click here. 

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