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Renewables grant spent in 90 minutes

Posted: 04/03/2007

So many homeowners want renewable energy that the March grant allocation was taken up in an hour and a half. Grant funding for householders to install microgeneration systems under the Government's Low Carbon Buildings Programme ran out just 90 minutes after applications opened on the 1st March.

The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP), launched in April 2006, is the Government’s funding scheme for small-scale Renewable Energy technologies. The household stream of this programme had a monthly £500,000 cap introduced in December 2006. The December allocation ran out on the 20th, the January allocation ran out on the 12th and the February allocation ran out before midday on the 1st.

The Solar Trade Association is calling on the Government to find another £15 million pounds in order to continuously and fully fund the LCBP until the start of its next renewable energy support scheme.

David Matthews, National Executive Officer of STA said “Householders are totally fed up. They want to take action on global warming issues and want to work with Government on climate change. However, although Government is providing plenty of spin through the Stern Report and international climate change leadership, it is currently providing very limited support on the home front. We therefore call on the Chancellor to prove his climate change credentials and fully fund the LCBP in this month’s budget”.

The STA comments that comparisons with many European countries expose the real situation. For example, the German small-scale renewable energy industry is well over 20 times the size of the comparable British industry and the German government has a full range of long term financial and regulatory measures in place to support their fledging small-scale renewables industry. As a result, many German householders are actively purchasing renewable energy systems and the German industry is flourishing with new investment, the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs and new factories. In stark contrast, British entrepreneurs are trying hard to compete in this European wide market but finding it difficult to move forward without the backing of a strong domestic market.

The Solar Trade Association (STA) is the UK’s leading independent renewable trade association. It is over 20 years old and represents Britain’s biggest microgeneration technology, Solar Thermal.

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