The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Gregory Barker)
I am pleased to announce today the publication of DECC’s policy document “Renewable Heat Incentive: the first step to transforming the way we heat our homes”. This meets the Government commitment, as set out in my statement to the House on 26 March, to publish the framework for providing longer-term financial support to households for the installation of renewable heating technologies in summer 2013. We remain committed to opening the scheme for applications in spring 2014. This marks a major milestone in achieving our renewable heat goals; it builds on the successes of the renewable heat premium payment which has seen more than £20 million spent on the installation of 16,000-plus domestic renewable heat systems over the last two years.
The domestic renewable heat incentive (RHI) will pay owners of solar thermal panels, biomass boilers and heat pumps for heat generated at the following levels: 7.3p/kWh for air source heat pumps; 12.2p/kWh for biomass boilers; 18.8p/kWh for ground source heat pumps and at least 19.21 p/kWh for solar thermal.
Alongside the policy statement, DECC is publishing the “Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive: Government response to the September 2012 consultation proposals for a domestic RHI” which explains in greater detail the rationale for the final Government position, stakeholder views and comments on original proposals outlined in the consultation document. We received over 400 responses to that consultation, and I would like to thank all those that submitted a formal response.
Government also consulted on proposals for expanding the existing non-domestic RHI scheme at the same time as we consulted on our proposals for domestic support. DECC is currently finalising the details of the expansion of the non-domestic RHI scheme and we will confirm the way forward in the autumn alongside the outcome of the tariff review. Our aim to introduce support through these changes from spring 2014 remains unchanged.
The policy statement, Government response and further supporting documentation can be found on gov.uk.
1This tariff is capped by reference to an assessment of the marginal cost of renewable energy. The tariff will be at least 19.2p, but may be higher depending on the outcome of further work. The announcement on the final tariff will be made in the autumn.