The Government announced that heat generation grants from the Low Carbon Buildings Program (LCBP) are now closed to new entrants.
On the face of it this is bad news for heat generating renewables, however most of us were already aware that these grants would be brought to a close within the next 8 months due to the impending Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI). In addition many felt that the LCBP grants were too small to properly influence a buyers decision, meaning that anyone claiming the grant would have made the purchase anyway. From this respect it should and will not deter people from making the decision to fit a heat pump or solar thermal panels.
What does this mean for the RHI?
The new government have not given any specific guidance in respect to the RHI at this stage. Closing the LCBP grants does mean that there are extra funds to inject into the RHI. There is also wide acknowledgement that to make a significant impact on the CO2 output from domestic homes we must focus on the methods used for home heating and hot water. The majority of CO2 emitted from a domestic home can be contributed directly to space and water heating and this is an area which now has no direct government stimulus to modify homeowners behaviour. Having said this for many people fuel prices alone provide a massive incentive to heat our homes more efficiently.
The government also made clear this week that they intend to stick to targets to make all new home built from 2016 to be zero carbon.
