The details of the long-awaited Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) have finally been announced by Chris Huhne today (10 March) with the £860m scheme expected to increase green capital investment by 4.5 billion up to 2020, giving a definite boost to the renewable heat market.

For homeowners, a full system of RHI payments will be available from October 2012. In the interim period, more than a quarter of the first year’s budget will be guaranteed for up to 25,000 household installations, through ‘RHI Premium Payment’, designed to encourage take-up.

Currently, around half of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the energy used to produce heat – more than from generating electricity. The RHI will reduce emissions by 44 million tonnes of carbon to 2020, equivalent to the annual carbon emitted by 20 typical new gas power stations.

Chris Huhne said: “Renewable heat is a largely untapped resource and an important new green industry of the future. This incentive is the first of its kind in the world. It’ll help the UK shift away from fossil fuel, reducing carbon emissions and encouraging innovation, jobs and growth in new advanced technologies.”

The tariffs offered under the RHI will shortly be approved by Government, so exact figures are not yet available. What we do know is that tariffs will be paid back over 20 years and eligible for technologies installed since 15th July 2009. As with Feed in Tariffs, it is expected that the levels of funding will be higher for early entrants onto the scheme, reflecting the inevitable reduction in the price of equipment and installation over time.

In terms of sector growth, by 2020 estimations suggest that in the commercial and public sectors alone, there will be 110,000 installations, supplying 25% of the heat demand – seven times the anticipated installations for 2014.

The full DECC press release can be found here.

Ecobuild, 01 March, 12.15 – 13.15: Mark Krull from Logic4training and Kelly Butler from BEAMA explained the growing renewables market, as part of the Installer Business seminars at Ecobuild.

Kelly covered the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) and Green Deal, explaining the benefits to consumers and why this means big business for installers. Other factors, like rising fuel prices and unstable oil markets are also pushing home owners to consider switching from traditional heat and power sources. In terms of the much anticipated RHI, for heat pumps alone predictions show that the installer base will double once the scheme is implemented.

Mark then went on to discuss the logistics of becoming a green installer, including an explanation of the MCS, which is currently being reviewed in order to make the scheme more relevant to smaller businesses. He highlighted the criteria installers need to meet as well as the help available to companies going through the process, such as the ECA’s MCS Made Easy course.

In addition to covering the MCS, other funding streams installers and end-users can access in order to ‘go green’, were also highlighted. These include initiatives, such as the East Sussex Energy Partnership, which provides funding in the South East for homeowners wishing to install solar thermal hot water heating, or insulation. For heat engineers, grants and advice is available from Business Link and Regional Development Agencies, designed to subsidise training and general investment in order to support the expansion of local enterprise.

To help installers (and anyone involved in deciding what building services technology goes in a property) Logic4training is launching an introduction to renewables course. In addition, Logic4training delivers MCS approved Solar Thermal Hot Water, Solar Photovoltaic and Heat Pump training courses.