Latest News
News and updates from Carbon Zero Consulting.
Feed-in-tariff rates for renewable electricity generation.
On February 1st 2010 the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced the tariff rates that will be applied to electricity produced by Solar Photovoltaic (PV), wind turbines, hydro-electric, anaerobic digesters and micro CHP. These rates will apply from 1st April 2010.
Carbon Zero Consulting believes this is a major turning point for the uptake of renewable energy installation. As an example, consider a 2kW solar PV installation costing about £8,000 to install covering about 16m2 of roof area. The new tariff will pay you about £600 per annum for the electricity produced for a period of 25 years, even though you will be using much of the electricity yourself.
This adds up to a total income of about £15,000. Add this to the money you will save by not buying all your electricity from the mains supplier, and the fact that the tariff payments will be indexed linked, then the payback on your investment will be less than ten years.
Domestic and commercial scale renewable energy generation not only reduces your carbon footprint but is now financially attractive over the long term! If you would like more details then please contact John Findlay at the Carbon Zero Consulting office on 0844 855 0115 or email him at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Thermal plume modelling for a site in central London
Carbon Zero Consulting has recently modelled the nature and extent of thermal plume migration for an open loop ground source system installed at a site in central London. The thermal plume migration has been modelled over 25 years using our in-house analytical model. The results of the modelling have been submitted to the Environment Agency as part of the Discharge Consent application. The Environment Agency's requirement for thermal plume modelling has become quite frequent in urban areas. On behalf of their clients, Carbon Zero Consulting has successfully obtained discharge consents for many sites in London and other major cities.
Carbon Zero Consulting helps the Irish Government
John Findlay, together with Co Director James Dodds, was invited to a attend and give a key note presentation at an invitees only seminar in Dublin, last week.
The seminar discussed issues relating to the regulatory control of deep and shallow geothermal energy projects, or in our parlance deep geothermal and ground sourced heating projects. The invitation was extended based on John’s recent work on regulatory policy development with the Environment Agency here in the UK.
The Irish Government are drafting a new Energy Bill and wish to introduce regulatory controls and energy licensing systems for these systems. The approach that the Irish are taking is somewhat ahead of the situation in the UK and we will be monitoring the Irish work to see if lessons might be learned by us on this side of the Irish Sea.
Homebuild & Renovation Show Harrogate
Carbon Zero Consulting demonstrated their renewable energy services at the Homebuild & Renovation Show in Harrogate last week with spectacular results. The show was a great success, with over 300 enquiries made during the three day event. Enquiries have clearly demonstrated the need for specialist advice covering ground source heat pump systems (GSHP), solar and photovoltaic solutions and micro HEP.
There was also a high level of interest from people already with GSHP systems, who had been experiencing extensive problems due to poor installation, and need our professional advice and support to help them put things right.
For more information contact John Findlay on 0844 855 0115 or email him at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Renewable Heat Incentive
In place of the existing modest grants available under the Low Carbon Building Scheme, producers of renewable heat from heat pumps, biomass and solar panels will receive a tariff payment for every unit of heat energy they produce.
Carbon Zero Consulting will be providing briefing notes as more details of the scheme are revealed. However, it is already clear that users of domestic and commercial heat pumps will receive sufficient tariff payment to at least pay for the electricity used to operate their heat pump. In other words, the heat you produce will be free and capital payback will be at least halved. The payments are thought to be guaranteed for 20 years. This will provide a return on investment in renewable technology of up to 8%.
How is this to be paid for? The answer is that everyone’s bills for oil, gas or electrical heating will increase. The money raised will be used to fund the RHI scheme. The objective is for the RHI to be a major driver to accelerate the move from ‘dirty’ fossil fuels to renewable heating systems.
All systems installed after 16th July 2009 will qualify for RHI payment from April 2011, and systems installed between now and April 2011 will ALSO get the one-off grant payment. What possible reason can anyone now have for not ‘going renewable’?!