The Renewable Heat Incentive for Solar hot water and other heat generating technologies
Claim your £300 Renewable Heat Premium from the government and claim a further £700 from Spirit Solar if you install both PV and Thermal before 31st March 2012.
That's a £1000 contribution towards your solar hot water system.
To claim you need to install by 31st March 2012.
Click here to request a quote for a solar hot water system so that you don't miss out on the £300 Renewable Heat Premium. If you buy PV as well you can claim a £700 discount.
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Introduction
The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a scheme set up by the Government to encourage consumers, commercial enterprises and public sector enterprises (schools, hospitals etc.) to generate heat energy from renewable sources: for example solar hot water, air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and biomass.
Heat production is responsible for over 55% of the final energy demand consumed in the UK and roughly half of all UK's carbon emissions (ONS, 2002). Taking action now to switch from fossil fuels to cleaner and more sustainable green sources of energy will reduce the impact that our heat requirements have on the environment and help ensure the UK has an energy supply that is safe, secure and reliable.
Back to TopWhen will it happen and how will it work?
The RHI / RHP is a system of upfront payments (the Renewable Heat Premium) and 20 year tariffs (the Renewable Heat Incentive) payable for energy generated by renewable heat technologies. It is being introduced in two phases:
- Phase I to include tariffs for commercial (non-domestic) systems and the £300 Renewable Heat Premium for domestic solar water systems installed between 1st August 2011 and 31st March 2012; and
- Phase II to include tariffs for domestic systems installed after 15th July 2009.
Phase 1: £300 RHP for domestic hot water systems and tariff for commercial installs
Phase 1 has two components:Phase I: Renewable Heat Premium for Domestic Installs
It includes a pot of £15 million to encourage take up of solar thermal by individuals.
Each household installing the technology between 1st August 2011 and 31st March 2012 can claim a one off payment of £300 (called the 'Renewable Heat Premium') RHP payment when they install a solar hot system. They will also be able to claim tariffs from October 2012, under Phase 2 of the scheme - see below.
There are payments available for other technologies*. The payments are as follows:
Technology Renewable Heat Premium Solar thermal hot water £300 Air source heat pump* £850 Ground source heat pump* £1250 Biomass boiler* £960 *Only for houses which don't use gas for main heating
In order to qualify:
- The property must have loft insulation to 250mm and cavity wall insulation (where practical).
- All necessary planning and environmental permissions should be in place.
- The installation must use certified products and a certified installer (Spirit Solar is a certified installer of solar hot water systems).
- You may be asked to submit information about how your system is performing.
To claim the RHP or read more click here:
Phase I: Tariffs for Commercial Installations
The first phase also includes 20 year tariff support for non-domestic installs, aimed at the big heat users - the industrial, business and public sector - which contribute 38% of the UK's carbon emissions.
A generation tariff will be paid for every kWh (kilowatt-hour of energy produced). The level of payment depends on the technology and the system size.
The following tariffs have been published for the initial phase of the scheme:
| Tariff Name | Eligible Technology | Eligible Sizes | Tariff Rate p/kWh |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Biomass | Solid Biomass: Municipal Solid Was (including CHP) | Less than 200kWth | Tier 1: 7.9 Tier 2: 2.0 |
| Medium Biomass | 200 kWth and above; less than 1000 kWth |
Tier 1: 4.9 Tier 2: 2.0 |
|
| Large Biomass | 1000 kWth and above | 1.0/td> | |
| Small Ground Source | Ground-source heat pumps; Water-source heat pumps; Deep geothermal | Less than 100 kWth | 4.5 |
| Large Ground Source | 100 kWth and above | 3.2 | |
| Solar Thermal | Solar Thermal | Less than 200 kWth | 8.5 |
| Biomethane | Biomethane injection & biogas combustion, except landfill gas | Biomethane all scales; biogas < 200 kWth | 6.8 |
As with the Feed-In Tariff for Solar PV, the tariffs are inflation linked and go up with RPI.
All these tariffs are fixed for a duration of 20 years.
Delay to Phase 1 tariffs for commercial installations:
The RHI for non-domestic generators was supposed to come into effect on 30 September 2011 but has been delayed. On 29th October DECC (the Department for Energy and Climate Change) announced:
"As you will be aware, DECC was planning to launch the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) for non-domestic generators on 30 September 2011. State Aid approval is a necessary condition for the scheme to go ahead. As part of that process, the European Commission has expressed concerns that the large biomass tariff is set too high. We understand that the Commission has given state aid approval for the RHI, subject to a reduction in the large biomass tariff and we expect to receive written confirmation of this very soon.
Changing the large biomass tariff will require the RHI regulations to be amended and submitted to Parliament for approval. We are unable to launch the scheme as a whole until this process has been completed. Therefore, unfortunately, we will not be able to open the scheme for applications on 30 September 2011 as we had originally planned.
Once we have received written confirmation from the Commission, we will make a further announcement about what this means for the large biomass tariff and the timing of the launch. We are committed to launching the scheme as soon as possible to minimise disruption to stakeholders."
Phase 2: Domestic tariffs
For households it is expected (to be confirmed) that the Renewable Heat Incentive will be introduced in October 2012.
The scheme will be administered by Ofgem, and paid for by the Treasury. It is similar to the Feed-in Tariffs, a comparable scheme set up to encourage generation of electricity using renewable sources. However the generation of heat energy is generally less easy to measure and the operation of the scheme is slightly different from the Feed-in tariffs. Specifically the scheme will operate as follows:
Step One: you install renewable heat systems in your property such as solar thermal panels, heat pumps or a biomass (wood burning) boiler.
Step Two: the installer (who must be MCS accredited) makes an estimate of how much heat your renewable energy systems will produce. For larger systems, the heat output will be metered rather than estimated.
Step Three: you get paid a fixed amount (see Tariffs below), based on that estimate, over set period of time (see tariff levels for details).
Domestic introduction is expected to be October 2012 though it is still to be confirmed, pending delays to the introduction of the non-domestic RHI.
No tariffs have yet been published.
The original consultation document for the Renewable Heat Incentive, previously proposed tariff levels which may or may not be indicative of the final published tariff levels. The indicative tariffs are as follows:
| Technology | Scale | Tariffs (p/kWth) | Tariff Lifetime (years) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small Installations | |||
| Solid Biomass | Up to 45kW | 9 | 15 |
| Biodiesel (restricted Use) | Up to 45kW | 6.5 | 15 |
| Biogas on-site Combustion | Up to 45kW | 5.5 | 10 |
| Ground Source Heat Pumps | Up to 45kW | 7 | 23 |
| Air Source Heat Pumps | Up to 45kW | 7.5 | 18 |
| Solar Thermal | Up to 20kW | 18 | 20 |
| Medium Installations | |||
| Solid Biomass | 45kW-500kW | 6.5 | 15 |
| Biogas on-site Combustion | 45kW-200kW | 5.5 | 10 |
| Ground Source Heat Pumps | 45kW-350kW | 5.5 | 20 |
| Air Source Heat Pumps | 45kW-350kW | 2 | 20 |
| Solar Thermal | 20kW-100kW | 17 | 20 |
| Large Installations | |||
| Solid Biomass | 500kW and above | 1.6-2.5 | 15 |
| Ground Source Heat Pumps | 350kW and above | 1.5 | 20 |
| Biomethane Injection | All Scales | 4 | 15 |
A note on Tariff degression
As the costs of renewable heat equipment may fall in real terms over the years, the Government may decide to reduce the tariff rates for people who start later in the scheme. This is known as 'degression' and is similar to what happens within the Feed-In Tariffs scheme.
The Government currently plans to review degression at the periodic reviews of the RHI to reassess technology cost levels as appropriate. There will not be any degression when the RHI is launched in 2011 and the first review is due to take effect from April 2013.
Back to TopHow the output will be measured - estimates versus metering
There are two different approaches that can be used to measure the heat output of systems: metering and 'deeming' (i.e. estimating the likely heat output).
The current proposals are that both should be used, depending on the size of the system:
Small systems
The levels of payment will be based on what the installed system would be expected to deliver if the property were well insulated. The RHI will define what 'well insulated' will mean; in the original consultation document the minimum requirement is 125mm of loft insulation, cavity wall filled where appropriate.
Medium-scale installations
In principle this will be similar to the approach taken for small-scale installations. However, there will be the option of metering for solid biomass installations. If metering is chosen, the same tariff levels will apply for the same deemed number of kWh for the property. However, where the metered number of kWh used exceeds the deemed number, an additional lower tariff per kWh would be paid to cover the excess.
Large-scale installations
All payments will be made by calculating the metered number of kWh multiplied by the tariff per kWh.
Biomethane injection and district heating
It is proposed that this be metered at all scales.
Back to TopEligibility - installation dates
Systems installed before june 2011
Systems installed after 15th July 2009 will be able to join the Renewable Heat Incentive scheme, but will only get paid for any generation from after the introduction of the RHI which relates to that sector, i.e. for household this will hopefully be in October 2012.
Systems installed from june 2011 onwards
You will receive Renewable Heat Incentive payments from the date of registration and for the duration.
Other eligibility criteria
- Available to private, domestic homeowners
- Living in England, Scotland and Wales
- Must have loft and cavity wall insulation installed
- Systems to be fitted using MCS certified kit by approved Solar installers
- May be necessary to provide feedback on performance
- Could require monitoring equipment to be fitted.
Insulation - minimum energy efficiency criteria
You should always aim to make your building energy efficient with insulation, low energy light bulbs etc. before installing renewable heating.
Since the deemed level of output used to calculate RHI payments will be worked out on the assumption that the building meets a minimum level of energy efficiency, meeting this minimum level is one of the criteria for eligibility.
For domestic houses, the minimum requirements (as set out in the consultation document) are:
- at least 125mm of loft insulation
- cavity wall filled where appropriate
There is a case to suggest that this is too lenient and there is an expectation that this will be one of the areas that is changed before the scheme goes live.
Back to TopHow to register and claim the RHI
At the moment you can't register as the scheme isn't live! Once Ofgem launches its database your MCS installer will register the installation. Ofgem will pay the incentive direct to your bank account, probably as an annual lump sum.
Back to Top