Yesterday (24 November) UK Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, published the consultation for the much anticipated Green Deal. The programme will launch next October with £14 billion of private sector investment promised over the next decade, including a new requirement on energy companies to provide £1.3 billion a year to help the most vulnerable and those with hard-to-treat homes, take part.

The Green Deal aims to help homeowners and businesses meet the upfront costs of energy efficiency improvements through long-term loans paid for out of savings to fuel bills. In addition to contributing to the reduction of fuel bills, it also predicted that the Green Deal could support 65,000 jobs in insulation and construction by 2015.

“The Green Deal is a massive business opportunity for firms up and down Britain,” said Huhne. “By stimulating billions of pounds of private sector investment, the Green Deal will revolutionise the way that we keep our homes warm, making them cosier, more efficient and all at no upfront cost.”

Huhne added that the government is considering offering up to £150 cash-back for homes taking part in the scheme and is looking at other ways of creating incentives for homeowners, businesses and providers to participate.

He also drew on new analysis which claims that from 2013, overall savings will start to kick in, as prices continue to rise, so that by 2020 the government’s policies contribute to a reduction in the average annual bill of around £94 or 7%. If prices rise faster than the analysis estimates, consumers will be even better off.

“There are certainly costs to replacing our ageing energy infrastructure with modern clean power stations, and we take very seriously any impact of our policies on what consumers and businesses pay,” Huhne said in his statement. “We’ve repeatedly taken steps to reduce this – by removing some planned levies on bills and making others more cost effective and within budget.”

To have your say in the Green Deal consultation, click here.

Part of energy efficiency improvements includes renewable technologies, Logic4training runs MCS recognised courses in solar thermal hot water, solar photovoltaics, ground and air source heat pumps.

The potential changes to the Feed in Tariff (FiTs) scheme have caused ripples within the building services industry. As part of the ‘Cut Don’t Kill’ campaign, the Solar Trade Association (STA), along with others in the sector, is taking a stand with a mass lobby on Government on November 22nd. Talking to members this week, Howard Johns, Chairman of the STA stated the following reasons for joining the protest:

Timing: “Bringing in the changes to the FIT before they have finished consulting is possibly unlawful and certainly highly destructive. We as an industry really need to send a strong signal that we do not want to cooperate with Government, but that we really will not stand for this level of bad treatment. It is totally unacceptable to have the goal posts changed in this way and we must make that clear to the decision makers or they will keep doing it.”

Rates: “Perhaps many can make them work – and good stuff if you can. However you cannot go out and sell on the back of them as this is a consultation and they may change again by the end of the period, leaving all our clients in a pickle. It places a level of uncertainty that is designed to stop our businesses working. It also stops many of the invested schemes – which although many don’t like – are crucial to stop us being branded as a tax on the poor for the green bling of the rich. We need the social homes to have PV to keep this balanced.”

Energy efficiency requirements: “This is perhaps the most worrying. A level C EPC is only held by 10%ish of UK homes. It costs between £5-7K to get one. Are your clients really going to want to do that to get their FIT? Of course we all want to see homes be more efficient – but electrical generation is unrelated to building performance so ultimately irrelevant – this standard is well above what is reasonable. It is using criteria from the green deal – which may or may not start in October, and will almost certainly be dominated by large companies. We are being told that this is an opportunity to diversify our businesses – well thanks but I like my business how it is and I don’t want to be an insulation installer.”

Ambition: “When you dig into the paperwork (the impact assessment), it seems that they are looking to shrink the market from its likely 500MW installed market this year to a market of between 10MW and at most 200MW. That means that at least half of us – if not 90% of us are likely to go out of business in the New Year.”

The rally will start at 1pm at The Emmanuel Centre, 9-23 Marsham Street, London with a mass lobby taking place at 2.30pm at St Stephens Entrance, Houses Parliament. For more information, visit www.oursolarfuture.org.uk/we-need-you/.