Connecting the Future - Greenpeace UK

Connecting the future: the UK’s renewable energy strategy
Conclusions
70
• Increasing the levels of carbon and energy savings for the Supplier
Obligation which will succeed CERTs, given that this can contribute to
the government’s fuel poverty and energy security agendas as well as
the need to reduce carbon emissions.
• Ensuring that all energy supply companies have an energy service
company (ESCO) approach for all energy sales.
• Recognising that the RO is not an effective mechanism, either in terms
of deployment or cost to the consumer. While it might be unfeasible
to abandon the RO as a model for existing projects, the government
should establish a feed-in tariff mechanism as a support option
for new projects to provide them with the financial certainty that is
necessary to drive rapid deployment.
• On the same grounds, the government should also recognise that
setting up RO-like mechanisms for renewable heat is unlikely to
produce sufficient levels to meet the respective targets. The
government is yet to establish a mechanism for renewable heat, and it
should avoid replicating the RO’s failure. A support mechanism based on
a feed-in tariff for renewable heat fuels is much more likely to drive the
sector.
• One of the main barriers to the development of heat networks
– renewable or not – appears to be the willingness of operators to
invest in high capital infrastructure in a market where a return on
investment is so uncertain. A mechanism of capital grants would
go some way towards addressing these concerns, and this sort
of aid is explicitly allowed under the European Commission’s new
proposals for permissible State Aid. The government should support
these proposals, and implement a scheme of capital grants for heat
networks. This in turn could act as a driver for the deployment of more
combined heat and power.
• Microgeneration technologies offer significant potential for carbon
reductions in the long term. However, the Low Carbon Buildings
Programme for supporting their deployment is confused and
ineffective. The government needs to reassess the level of grants
available, and extend the scheme to build up sufficient momentum
in the sector to allow it to contribute to the achievement of other
targets, in particular the Zero Carbon Homes target.