Thursday 25 July 2013
Social landlords win share of £7m for renewable heating
The Government has awarded a share of £7 million to 46 social landlords to get renewable heating into the homes of their tenants.
The winners are the first wave of successful bidders to be announced under the latest round of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) competition launched earlier this year.
The figure is £4 million more than the initial planned funding for the first round and DECC said this was due to “a number of high quality bids offering good value for money and representing a wide range of technologies”. It made more cash available under this strand from the money left over from previous RHPP competitions.
Social landlords will use the cash to install a range of renewable heating technologies such as air and ground source heat pumps, solar thermal and biomass boilers.
Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “This latest cash boost for social landlords will help install nearly 2,400 renewable heating technologies in the homes of social tenants, helping hard pressed families save money on their energy bills.
“It’s great to see so many social landlords across Great Britain getting involved. The second strand of our renewable heat competition is still open to bids so I would encourage those who have not yet taken advantage of the funding available to get on board.”
The bids were reviewed and assessed on a range of criteria including value for money, fuel to be replaced, additional energy efficiency measures to be installed and plans to work with local communities.
The winners include Stroud District Council, Gloucestershire, which plans to install more than 400 air source heat pumps and Devon and Cornwall Housing, aiming to install 150 ground source heat pumps into UK homes.
The projects will need to be completed by the end of March next year. Social landlords can still apply for funding under the second strand of the RHPP scheme via the Energy Saving Trust (EST) site, with the bidding open until 27 September 2013. Installations under the second round will have until June next year to be completed.
DECC also confirmed incentives for householders who generate heat from renewable technologies earlier this month.
