Home Energy Producers Need a Fair Deal

In the run-up to the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change it is vital that the UK demonstrates its commitment to policies that will make a real difference. Last year’s Energy Act included the provision of feed-in tariffs for micro-producers of energy from wind, solar and other sources – meaning householders who install these technologies will receive a ‘payback’ for the extra energy they produce.

However the tariffs proposed for the Government’s Clean Energy Cashback scheme will mean that this renewable electricity might contribute only two per cent of the UK’s electricity by the year 2020.

In Pendle over the last decade 9,000 households have shown their willingness to take advantage of more efficient heating and insulation through the Warm Front scheme which provides a grant of £3,500 to pay for heating and energy efficiency measures. Thousands more have benefited from free or subsidised insulation paid for by energy companies under the CERT programme.

In a new development this year Warm Front management company, eaga, has included Pendle in its pilot project for solar power heating paid for by the Warm Front scheme and intended to take homes out of fuel poverty.

But without suitable feed-in tariffs for renewable heat and energy to deliver a higher return on the investment involved, I do not see these installations taking off. So I have joined over 140 MPs in a call on the Government to revise the proposed tariffs substantially. Watch this space.