Green Energy Republic

Hiking interest rates not the answer to inflation, but microgeneration could be

By Juliet Davenport, CEO

News that inflation rose to an 8-month high of 3.7% in December sparked a barrage of calls for the Bank of England to increase interest rates. Somewhat misleading in my opinion, and according to my own understanding of basic economics. The BoE has an inflation target of 2% to aim at, with interest rates being the main weapon in its armoury. But the recent increases in inflation are being driven by rising food, fuel and energy prices – wheat prices have gone up due to a lack of rain followed by too much rain; energy prices are being driven by trading conditions on world energy markets; and fuel prices by underlying oil prices, weather and VAT – none of which would be affected by hiking interest rates.

Interest rates are effective at reducing consumer demand for goods and services, and therefore inflation when it is consumer demand that is causing inflationary pressure. But this is not the situation the UK economy is in at the moment; demand for the staples of life - food and energy - is relatively constant. Increasing the cost of borrowing will push up another staple cost, mortgages, and won’t do anything to help households reduce their use of energy.

A far more effective weapon against inflation would be putting policies in place to allow householders to cut their energy costs - either by generating their own energy or reducing the amount they need through better energy efficiency. In the current economic situation, increasing interest rates are a blunt and in my opinion, virtually useless instrument!

Move over Friesian. Is Solar PV the new cash cow on the farm?

By Kate Monson

There is no doubt that the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) has made an impact on renewable energy generation in this country. Here at Good Energy we hit a significant milestone last week when we signed up our 1000th FIT customer. In the same week Ofgem revealed that more than 11 000 generators registered for the FIT during its first six months. That amounts to about 44MW of renewable capacity, enough to power four towns the size of Glastonbury.

And speaking of Glastonbury, Michael Eavis of festival fame recently installed 1116 solar panels on the roof of his cowshed – the one so wittily nicknamed the Mootel. The array is the largest on the roof of any farm building in the UK, and will generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of 40 homes annually, saving around 100 tonnes of carbon a year. “We had to make a major statement because [with the festival] we use so much power” Eavis told the Guardian. “This has brought us a one big step closer to our goal of operating the farm as ecologically as possible.” Watch a short film from the solar launch at Worthy Farm here.

But while Eavis is well-known for his eco-credentials, there are plenty of other farmers and landowners who are seeing harvesting sunshine as a great financial investment too. And with embattled British farmers seeking new ways to diversify, this should come as no surprise. According to a recent survey by Farming Futures, twice as many farmers (15%) are generating renewable energy compared with last year. And with over 100 planning applications for schemes in Cornwall alone – including a £40m network of solar farms, which if built would triple the UK’s current solar generating capacity – this number is likely to rise.

Our CEO Juliet Davenport spoke at a Farming Futures workshop held at the Eavis farm last week, aimed at helping farmers understand how to upgrade their building with solar. Interest from the farming community was huge. “We had to turn over 100 farmers away from this event, which shows there is a real appetite for investing in on-farm solar technology,” says Farming Futures’ Ben Tuxworth.

However, the question begging to be answered is, are we really ready to lose swathes of our green and pleasant land to hundreds of solar panels?

Firstly, as Michael Eavis and Farming Futures have illustrated, there is significant potential for arrays to be installed on existing farm buildings rather than green fields, and it is vital these potential sites are thoroughly explored. It’s also worth noting that the visual impact of a solar farm is extremely low, with panels lying close to the ground, often obscured by hedgerows, with matt rather than reflective surfaces. And as Juliet commented when discussing a proposed solar farm in Caddington, Central Bedfordife on the BBC’s Three Counties Breakfast Show last week, “The panels are silent, don’t move around, and sheep can still graze the grass around them.”

And arguably most importantly, the UK has a binding target to produce 15% of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. In order to reach this, huge changes are required across the energy sector. Increased energy generation from solar will help us towards this. But not only will it add to the country’s renewable capacity, solar generation can provide the country’s farmers with a vital additional income, in turn helping to maintain the rural and farming communities that are so quintessentially British.

Good Energy knows that the UK can reach a 100% renewable future by 2050. And we have carried out the research to prove it. Take a look at a pathway to 100% here.

Click here to read about West Mill Community Wind Farm in Oxfordshire and discover other ways that rural communities can benefit from renewable generation.

Catching the generation bug

By Claire Simon
 
Dianne Hutchens from Welling, Kent, caught the generation bug early. In 2003, she made what was perceived by some as a risky decision – making the move to generating her own electricity. She didn’t stop there though: a few years later she began generating her own heat too.


Dianne’s journey began one warm summer’s day. Going up to her loft space, she was surprised by how hot it was, and began thinking about the energy being wasted and the potential of harnessing it to power or heat her home. When she later came across an article in a magazine about the potential benefits of solar PV, she decided to contact a solar installer to find out more.

Knowing no-one who had gone down the path of renewable energy before her, Dianne was viewed as somewhat of a risk-taker: “Those who invested in home generation early were pioneers”, she says. “Other people needed proof that it would work, and waited to see how I got on with it before taking steps themselves”. In fact, Dianne was in the first 1000 people in the UK to get a grant for her panels, placing her at the forefront of home generation. In 2003, she qualified for a 50% grant on the £15,000 cost of the installation of her 14-panel 2.52kW solar PV array. Importantly though, Dianne didn’t see the grant as a way to save money, but as a way to expand on her renewable vision: hearing that she would get financial help towards the cost of the installation, she decided to double the planned size of her solar PV array.

Once installed on her roof, the 14 panels generated around 98% of the electricity she consumed. Dianne also receives a payment of 9p per unit for the electricity she generates. By contrast, under the Feed-in Tariff rules introduced in April 2010, new solar generators get 41.3p a unit – which for an array this size would amount to an annual payment of around £900 – although new generators aren’t entitled to the grants that were available when Dianne installed her solar PV.

Thanks to these financial benefits, Dianne realised that not only was she saving money, she was helping save the planet too. This caused the generation bug to well and truly take hold: “Once I started down the renewable route it made me a lot more aware about what was around”. With her electricity sorted, her next step was heating.

In 2009, Dianne’s 16-year-old gas boiler was starting to show its age. However, instead of simply replacing it with a new one, she took what was perceived as another gamble – choosing an air source heat pump. However, it wasn’t a straight swap. As heat pumps work at a lower temperature, they need a bigger surface area to release more heat, meaning Dianne also had to replace three radiators with ones 30% bigger than the originals, escalating the cost of the project.

The heat pump’s inaugural winter of 2009/10 was certainly a test. Thankfully, Dianne says that despite the hiccups, and even with the wrong sized radiators, “I was still kept warm throughout the winter. The air source heat pump was working very hard, but it did it!” The pump uses around a third of the energy of a traditional gas boiler, with Dianne’s gas consumption falling to zero. And under plans for the Renewable Heat Incentive, due to be introduced in 2011, Dianne may also receive a payment for the heat she generates, similar to the Feed-in Tariff. Unsurprisingly she considers her air source heat pump a very worthwhile investment.

On top of her own renewable technologies, Dianne wanted to make sure that any electricity she did have to buy came from 100% renewable sources. This is why she is a Good Energy customer. As with many of our generators, Dianne found that generating her own energy has made her much more aware of her energy consumption, and the need to use as well as generate energy wisely: “It sounds silly, but it really feels like ‘my’ electricity and ‘my’ heat now, so I don’t want to waste it”.

And have her previously perceived risky decisions rubbed off on others? Of course: “My parents and some friends from work have followed suit and had solar PV panels fitted”. But it took people like Dianne to make those vital and visionary first steps. It is with awareness and an attitude like hers that the UK will be able to reach a 100% renewable future.

The sense of movement

Peter Askew at GoodBrand & Company, the brand consultancy which has been working with Good Energy, trades the tube for two wheels thanks to the new London bike rental scheme.

I don’t know about you, but it’s not often I get to try new stuff. Most of my days are prescheduled, my experiences preconditioned, even my responses predefined. So Monday was exciting because I tried out something for the first time: London’s shiny new cycle scheme.

It was exhilarating at many levels - and least of all the obvious lunacy of taking my life into my hands, helmetless, on an unwieldy big-boned Boris-bike on the capital’s crazy flyways. Pulling out of the back streets of Paddington into central London’s high-speed two-way cycle lanes, I entered a fast, purposeful slipstream of everyday commuter cyclists. It felt a bit like waking up into Monday as a living cell pumping through the city’s arteries. It felt very different to every other day’s shuffling, inching, zombiesque, into the pungent coffin-like Tube 20 metres under..

But beyond that, and the overwhelming feeling of speed and vigour, was the proud sense of joining a movement to which I hadn’t previously belonged. Now, having recently worked with Good Energy to brand its difference vs all other utilities companies, I’ll try not to work this one too hard… but for me there are three clear parallels between my Monday experience and that of joining Good Energy’s homegrown energy movement:

1. You’re joining other people that know what you know. There’s an immediate bond of shared values - a new more sensible code of conduct - and the inevitable resulting sense of camaraderie.

2. You experience a real sense of positive purpose, of waking out of sleepwalking. By joining a movement of many you’re reminded of your own identity and freedom to act. There’s a feeling of self-determination, of social emancipation, an exercising of your political rights.

3. But perhaps the most notable observation is this: These infrastructures, once tested and fine-tuned, get scaled up, rolled out and rapidly spawn creative competitive marketplaces. Actually that’s what’s happening right now with the burgeoning city cycle scheme sector across Europe.

Good Energy is creating a homegrown energy movement which is proving there’s a new kind of market and infrastructure that can work. It’s still really a beta experiment, whose imminent next phase is scale-up and roll-out.

That’s the sense of movement: being a part of a purposeful self-enhancing idea for the future.

Councils can become green generators

Great news this morning that councils can start producing their own homegrown energy from next week. Good Energy's CEO Juliet Davenport was interviewed about this on the Five Live breakfast show this morning – and also got into an interesting debate with a wind farm NIMBY. You can listen again here. Fast forward to find the clip at 2:36:13 until 2:41:18.

 
We think it’s a win-win situation for everyone. Local authorities will be able to earn money from selling green electricity back into the grid, which they should be able to put towards reducing council taxes – so the benefits can be enjoyed by the whole community.

We’re also pleased that the Government is pressing ahead with proposals first mooted by Greg Clark MP that would allow communities with renewable energy projects to keep the additional business rates they generate. We’ve always believed that local authorities have a critical role to play in helping the UK produce more home-grown renewable electricity, which is better for our energy security as well as helping reduce carbon emissions.

The Government needs to work with communities when planning local energy projects not against them, and these proposals are a welcome move in the right direction. All these steps are vital in encouraging community-owned energy schemes, which benefit everyone.

Washing with the wind

By Chris Welby, Good Energy’s Commercial Director

 

As we move the UK to a low carbon economy, one of the things  we are going to have to address is the variable nature of wind.  Currently, energy forecasting is a one-way street.  The guys who manage the network work out what we expect the electricity demand to be and then call on stream the appropriate amount of generation, primarily from gas or coal-fired power stations.   So, we control the generation side, but what about the demand side – the amount of energy consumers like you and me are using? The fact is that, currently, we do very little to control this.  We actually see controlling demand as a last resort, shutting off heavy industry in times of system stress, and suffering hysteria in the press about how close we came to blackouts.

In our low carbon future, we cannot do this. Wind generation is reliable with turbines in the right place achieving high load factors, and their output is perfectly forecastable.  Also, we will never be dependent on other countries for our wind power, like we are for gas, coal, oil or uranium.  This is a big plus for our long term energy security.  However, the option to switch on another wind turbine to deal with the evening peak or prolonged period of cold weather is not always there and, besides, we want to be maximising the use of turbines, not building them and turning them off to be used only if there is high demand. 

To do this, we need to look at demand management.  We’ve become used to the idea that when we want to use energy, we flick a switch and there it is.  A lot of the time our decisions on when we need that energy are random.  Do we care when our hot water is heated, as long as we have a full tank for when we get up in the morning?  Do we care when our fridges and freezer click in and out as long as they remain cold?  And in the future, do we care when our electric car charges, as long as it is available by the time we need it?

The answer is no.  Therefore, why not pass control of such things to someone else, who then maximises the use of wind energy for us? Would this sort of management be feasible?

We looked into this a while ago and set up a project with Durham University and a renewable technology company called Senergy Econnect.  The project was called “Demand for Wind” (www.demandforwind.co.uk), and looked at developing a process where domestic devices could be controlled remotely based on the availability of wind power on the network.

Devices in the trial included dishwashers fitted with a special plug, so that they could be activated remotely.  Customers could set the time by which they required it to have commenced running via an internet interface.  The system would then turn it on at a time of excess wind.  If such an occasion did not occur, then the dishwasher would kick in at a time to ensure clean dishes were available.  The principle was also trialled for washing machines and water heating, and in theory could work for any device the customer chose to set up.

The system was also tested against customers’ microgeneration.  The theory was that devices would kick in when micro wind turbines were turning, maximising the use of onsite generation.  A complication with this is that wind can be gusty, and once a device like a dishwasher is started there is no stopping it until the run is complete, but in essence it allowed microgenerators to maximise the use of their homegrown energy rather than exporting it to the network. 

The project proved that the concept is feasible, and the consumers in the trials were generally positive.  People liked the fact that decisions were automated, but only taken when permission was granted by the householder, and their ability to override the system seems to be key.

With work now commencing on smart meters and smart grids, the potential to use this technology to shift energy usage to times when renewables are at their peak are vast.  This means that very soon we could all be doing our washing with the wind without even thinking about it.

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.

____________________________________

Next week we will look at planning renewable energy projects…

Good Energy: Campaigning on your behalf

By Juliet Davenport, CEO

As we head towards election day, we thought it would be a good opportunity to update you on some of the work we’ve been doing in Westminster recently.

At Good Energy we’ve always been proud of our campaigning credentials and we’ve always tried to be more than just a company to our customers and generators. Empowering individuals to make a difference to climate change is at the heart of our ethos. It’s for that reason we strive to act as an advocate in Westminster for our generators and customers to ensure that politicians of all parties recognise the importance of growing renewable energy, particularly on a small and medium scale. Over the years we’ve built up a wealth of knowledge and experience from working with our community of energy entrepreneurs and we want to capitalise on that by communicating that information to those politicians most likely to influence Government and Opposition policy.

Our recent Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs campaign is just one example of some of the work we’ve been doing. By working with Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael and by providing our generators with the materials necessary to write to their own Members of Parliament, almost 100 MPs have rallied to our cause and called for the fair treatment to those microgenerators who broke the ground that made the Clean Energy Cash Back Scheme (aka feed-in tariff) possible. At the same time, we’ve been speaking to key MPs, both on the front and back benches, to get them to press our case further through their own contacts. With it now looking increasingly likely that the current Labour Government will be in Opposition in a week’s time, and with the Conservatives committed to reviewing early adopters’ policy immediately upon taking office and with the support from the vast majority of Lib Dem MPs, we now stand a very good chance of winning this campaign.

The next few days is sure to be one of the most exciting ends to a General Election campaign for years, and who knows what the result will be! Whether it is a new Conservative government, a hung Parliament or a coalition government, a whole range of opportunities will exist in Westminster to press Good Energy’s case in the debate on the issues that matter. Whether it be campaigning for a Fair Deal for Energy Entrepreneurs or arguing that it’s not right to expect renewable electricity customers to pay for carbon capture and storage plans, we hope to take full advantage of those opportunities and try our best to act as your advocate into the future.

Some of the other issues we hope to take up with whoever wins power include: delivering a fair and effective renewable heat incentive; addressing some of the planning problems associated with onshore wind and other renewable schemes; and reform of the national grid to ensure independent electricity generators can deliver their power. So, please watch this space.