Wicks gives a helping hand to green householders

[Shirley]

There will be £6.2 million more funding available under the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP) for people who want to install micro-wind turbines, solar panels and other microgeneration technologies on their homes, Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks announced this week.

There has been a fantastic response to the programme since its launch in April and to help meet the demand the DTI is transferring £6.2million of the total £28.5 million phase 1 funding into the householder stream.

Phase 2 funding, which was announced by the Chancellor in the last Budget, will provide a further £50 million in grants for large-scale public sector projects and charitable organisations.

The Energy Minister highlighted the increase during a speech to the Royal Geographical Society in London. He said:
"Through the huge response to the Low Carbon Buildings Programme we have already allocated over £3m of grants to households installing microgeneration - the demand has been so great that this represents half the total household budget in only the first year of the programme.

"To enable it to continue this good work I am pleased to announce we are re-allocating a further £6.2m of the programme funding to the householder workstream. On projected demand levels this should allow us to operate the grant programme until mid 2008.

"By this time some of our wider measures to promote microgeneration should be taking hold, and we believe the sector will have matured to a point where householder grants are no longer the best use of our resources. I am keen that industry are involved in our plans and we will be discussing the details with them shortly."

This will now mean there is a total pot of £12.7 million for householder grants and DTI officials will meet with representatives from the microgeneration industry next week to discuss in more detail how the programme will operate going forward.

Welcoming the announcement, Philip Wolfe Renewable Energy Association Chief Executive said today:

"Interest in domestic scale renewables has been growing very rapidly. This is one of the cornerstones of the Government's microgeneration strategy, so it is vital that there is adequate funding to sustain the public's enthusiasm. The industry has also been working flat out to increase this sustainable energy source, and the Association has launched the REAL code of conduct to promote high standards of products and customer service in the sector."


* For more information on the LCBP click here -
www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk
* For more information on the DTI Microgeneration Strategy click here -
http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/sources/su ... 27594.html * For more information on the REA click here -
http://www.r-p-a.org.uk/home.fcm

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[Martin]

yawn!
What they don't tell you is that there is now a vast industry of "grant chasing" companies, using the grant money as a sales aid - if you do your sums, in almost all cases, you can source better products, often at half the price of "granted" ones by "shopping around"!
And do also bear in mind that there is a lamentable lack of emphasis on "performance" - many items on the grant list are over-hyped rubbish that can cost the environment far more than they can ever "put back"
What I'd like to see is a simple subsidy paid directly to green power producers - it could be very simply implemented by the power companies, using simple technology - just pay something like 40p a kw/h for renewably generated power, and the industry will then have the incentive to develop REAL solutions that actually do work!
The way I look at it, government takes probably two thousand quid of ours through the tax system so that they can give one thousand of them to the Carbon Trust, who will then waste another six hundred quid on "administration", all to award some plonker 400 notes towards the cost of something that can't work!

[Shirley]

I know Martin!! It's about time something was done about it.

[Martin]

I AM trying!
and while I'm up on my soapbox, I would also point out that this is only a derisory amount of "teapot money" - the proposed ID card scheme will cost at least a thousand times more (probably by the time they've cocked up as they always do - ten thousand times more!)
So it rather sums up this present tawdry shower - they are thousands of times more interested in controlling us than saving the planet - heads should roll! - where is Guy Fawkes or the guy on the grassy knoll when you need them???????

[Muddypause]

I have to disagree that grant aid is all a bad thing.

Grant funding for people converting their cars to LPG has certainly been open to abuse, and was often a bureaucratic nightmare, but it was instrumental in getting the whole industry infrastructure on its feet. This was proven when grant funding came to an end 18 months ago, and suddenly the conversion industry is rather in the doldrums. Some manufactureres have even stopped offering LPG as an option, now that there is no grant to support their purchase.

I'm also of the opinion that a bit of grant aid for veg-diesel would lift it from being a crank's garden shed industry to something more people took seriously.

The first steps in any new direction are likely to be faltering, and even in the wrong direction, but if we don't take those steps, we will never get underway.

[Martin]

it may well have worked in that case, but grants are by their very nature "wasteful" of resources - to take the now-mostly-defunct "Clear Skies" thing - over half of all funds went in "admin" - it adds a step of dreaded bureaucracy - more "non jobs" for the boys!
Looking at the companies who are benefitting from the grants, I see people selling turbines that can't work when used as suggested, dreadfully shoddy solar hot water systems at ludicrous prices - (7-11k), and a general encouragement of "Style over substance". The present scheme is just encouraging self-appointed trade associations, who's hopeless advice they are also lapping up
IF grants are to be used, it should be efficiently, and performance, not "hype" based!
For once, I'd like to see a proper, old-fashioned "Ministry of Renewables" - not farmed out to private enterprise, but properly controlled and funded - and give them the funds to sponsor pure research in our universities, and to employ some real experts for a change, rather than the bunch of teapot salesmen they are currently listening to!

[Boots]

Has anyone else noticed how posts continue to be diverted into discussions about wind turbines? Everything put forward regarding wind is clearly wrong, ineffective and waste of time and money... So why do we keep getting this shoved down our throats? I would not even bother wading through the rubbish now to even test one, after reading all the hoo-ha here. It is getting very boring.

When people or governments move money and particularly grants into certain areas it moves the focus onto that area. Whether that be aged care, youth support, roads, or whatever... It is GOOD to see the environment being highlighted in this way, if only to help address a lack of green thinking or encourage green building forethought.

Solar is supported in these grants, as is methane, hydro, the good ol black plastic pipe and time proven Southern Cross Wind pumps, among a range of alternative energy options. To dismiss them all simply because they use the dreaded word: wind turbine in their pitch, is close minded.

I would welcome such a funding boost in Aus. I think many would actually, because there are people who are genuinely trying to revert their homes or build enviro-friendly and efficient ones, and not just sell stuff.

How effective is it really, to attempt to put the funding at risk or diminish the overall concept of sustainability for the sake of one small aspect of the Program?

Bloody ell... go take a wander around an opportunity shop sometime. The places are filled with appliances, you beaut dicers, choppers, juicers, heaters, curlers, foot soakers, water filters, tv aerials and whatever other odd contraptions have been pumped out at whatever ridiculous prices they can generate. I don't see anyone dancing around trying to stop that, but this one impedes on your income, Martin... so all of a sudden you have some ethical reason to start tooting your horn??

Give me a break.

[Martin]

a few weeks ago, I was "looking favourably" at the thought of one of the Indian Lister clones, and the use of bio-diesel in the form of used chip fat - following a friend's experiences, I've now curbed my enthusiasm more than somewhat!
"free chip fat" would appear to be a bit of a non-starter, certainly in any quantity - if you ask around, you find that your chippy probably uses a solid fat - the chinese and indian restaurants work on the "top up" system, or include it in the dishes! It is not easily available - then you have the fun and games picking it up and transporting it home. The containers will be grimy, and covered in fat - when you've got them home, you have to filter it - apparently the result is some exceedingly toxic sludge that you've then got to dispose of safely.
If you then notice the GM companies slavering in the wings at the thought of flattening the rest of the Amazon to grow gm biofuels.........
Rather than giving a grant, all the government has to do is remove the stupid tax you have to pay on biodiesel (and the expensive revenue collectors!)