REI Mar-Apr 2012 - Renewable Energy Installer

��������������������������������������������������
�������������
���������������
�������������
���������������������������������������������
���������������������������������������
�������������������������������������������
��������������������������������������������������
������������������������������������������
�������������������������������������������������
�����������������������������������������
�������������������������������������������
�����������������������������������
������������������������������
�����������������������������
�����������������������������
�����������������������
�������������������
������������������������
��������������������������
����������������������������������������
��������������������������������������
�����������������������������������������
���������������������������������
������������������������������������������������������
24 | www.renewableenergyinstaller.co.uk
Opinion
Looking ahead
Ecoskies urges installers to prepare for
the future of FiTs and RHI and says the
EPC is no barrier to making the most of
PV and heat tariffs
y passing the Climate
B
Change Act 2008, the
UK government pledged
to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by 34 per cent by the
year 2020, and 80 per cent by 2050.
Lauded at the time as a forwardthinking
and bold piece of legislation,
it was left for the future to determine
how these goals were going to be
met.
In 2010 the Department
of Energy and Climate Change
(DECC) introduced generous solar
PV feed-in tariffs (FiTs) as one of
the first steps towards meeting the
Skies the limit: Brett Pearson,
Ecoskies. The company is
offering a three-day ABBE
accredited domestic energy
assessor (DEA) training course
low-carbon obligations of Pathways 2050. However, in October 2011
DECC announced massive cuts to these FiTs after realising that
the applications for the tariff were far outstripping projections. The
resulting outcry from the solar PV industry, the plummet of trust in
the government’s ability to manage the scheme, and the inevitable
lawsuit comprised a debacle of DECC’s own making. This misstep
was borne not of ill-will by DECC for the solar PV industry, as some
have wondered, but out of inexperience in guiding such an ambitious
programme through what is virgin regulatory territory.
As DECC’s experience grows and it learns to manage
renewables incentives more deftly, it will continue to fine-tune tariffs
and regulations. Along these lines DECC has made clear its intention
to make the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) an ingredient to
qualifying for full tariffs (or any tariff at all). It is well and good to
adopt renewable energy systems, after all, but it is not in the spirit of
the plan to let that valuable clean energy just fly out the window.
While the new Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) has no EPC
requirements in its first phase, it is highly probable that the second
phase will require a certain EPC level to qualify for the tariff.
EcoSkies has anticipated these changes by rolling out a new
three-day ABBE accredited domestic energy assessor (DEA) training
course. Brett Pearson, business development manager of EcoSkies,
said: “Beyond low energy lighting, relatively little can be done
electrically to improve the energy performance of a home. The same
cannot be said for space heating and producing hot water. In fact,
there is plenty you can do just using the ‘insulate before you generate’
rule. We have the Green Deal for that, which is being launched handin-hand
with Phase 2 single-domestic RHI. It stands to reason then,
that if Greg Barker is hell-bent on bringing in EPC requirements for
PV, it would be entirely contradictory and inconsistent for there be no
EPC requirement on Phase 2 RHI payments.”