Bridging the generation gap

Commuters into our big cities can’t have helped but notice the change in the suburban roof tops in the shape of a proliferation of solar panels and wind turbines on homes and businesses.  A combination of generous government incentives and the sense of being that little bit greener are encouraging businesses and homeowners to turn their premises into power stations.

There are two schemes of particular interest to business people and property owners.   The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) offers subsidies to encourage investment in so-called microgeneration technologies which produce less than 50kWh a year. It is backed by £860m of public funding in the first four years and expected to stimulate capital investment of £4.5 billion by 2020 and assure 150,000 jobs in manufacturing installers and supply chain.

The government wants the RHI to help drive a rapid growth in renewable heating to reduce the amount of energy spent generating heat – more than half of the country’s carbon emissions come from producing heat which is even more than that produced in generating electricity.  The RHI will be introduced in two phases.   It is expected that support will be available to non-domestic sectors with eligible installations from 30 September 2011 and to the domestic sector from 2012.

The microgeneration sector is often recognised for the “roof top technologies” such as micro wind turbines and solar thermal and photovoltaic panels but it also includes air and ground source heat pumps, micro-combined heat and power and biomass heating systems.    This is likely to appeal to business premises owners such housing associations, facilities managers, councils and retailers as well as farmers and other landowners looking to make investments in renewables to reduce their heating bills while establishing their green credentials.

While the Feed in Tariffs (FIT) is aimed at electricity generation where investors in renewable energies are offered long term contracts to sell their power back to their utility and get a further reduction on their bills.   This has lead to particular interest in photovoltaic cells but it is not just on houses.  Only recently Body Shop, Thames Water, Northumberland Council and even the Church of England have all announced plans to invest in PV cells.

Because of the long term commitment to buy back the electricity and the generous rate for the power producing an expected return on investment in eight years, interest has taken off.  However the government has recently revised downwards the FIT support for solar PV installations above 50 kWh capacity dramatically slowing the interest large-scale photovoltaic solar parks.
 
The future of the Microgeneration industry and how businesses can both save and make money from it will come under the spotlight at a dedicated exhibition and conference Microgen in October.  As well as a world class conference programme by its business partner, the Renewable Energy Association, and the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) it will display a comprehensive array of technology, equipment and services to assist the microgeneration investor.

The event director, Gordon Kirk says: “Microgeneration is a serious opportunity for many businesses in these difficult financial times as it offers reduced fuel bills and a new revenue stream. Microgen is a dedicated event which will bring buyers, sellers and installers together to help stimulate growth.”  Microgen takes place at in Stoneleigh Park, Warwickshire on 5 and 6 October 2011.