Renewable Heat Incentive

Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) 

The RHI is a world first financial incentive scheme formally announced by the UK government in March 2011 and formally launched for non-domestic installations on 28th November 2011. The scheme will provide payments to new generators of renewable heat which meet eligibilty criteria. Both businesses and homeowners can benefit from this groundbreaking initiative.

Phased Roll-out

The renewable heat incentive will be launched in two phases. Non-domestic installations will have been able to make applications to Ofgem (the scheme administrator) since November 2011. Domestic installations will have to wait until summer 2013 before being able to claim payments. However, domestic installations can claim some financial support with the capitol cost of equipment until March 2013 under the Renewable Heat Premium Payments Scheme (RHPP), administered by the Energy Saving Trust. See below for details on the RHPP

Tariff levels have been published for non-domestic installations. Much of the detail for the domestic side of the RHI are still to be finalised.

Extension to the RHPP

The RHPP was originially in August launched as a eight month window of opporuntity for domestic cutomers to obtain financial support towards the capitol cost of renewable heat equipment. Eligible installations were able to apply to the Energy Saving Trust (who administer the scheme) once the system was commissioned to receive a one-off payment. This paymnet varied from £300 for a solar thermal system up to £1250 for a ground source heat pump.That scheme formally closes on the 31st March 2012, but on the 26th March, DECC announced that the RHPP scheme would be extended to March 31st 2013, with an expanded budget and additional provision for community groups and social housing landlords. See box for details.

DECC have also now released details on their planned timeline for developing longer term support mechanisms for domestic renewable heat instllations. The original intention was for long term support package to be launched in the Autumn of 2012. From the timeline below, this now looks more like a summer 2013 launch. In addition, DECC have been careful to stress that the package of support measures for domestic RHI suggested in the original consultation document of Feb 2010, is unlikely to bear much relation to the final package when it is released.

Non-domestic RHI Tariff levels as of April 1st 2012

Eligibility for RHPP

There are a number of criteria points which must be met to qualify for RHPP support, focussed on your current fuel use and the energy efficiency of your property.

The table below outlines some of the eligibility requirements, or for more details see the Energy Saving Trust website for RHPP here

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