UK prolongs support for household heat pump installations

The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has revealed its plans to run a second phase of the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) scheme for households from 1 May 2012 until 31 March 2013. The programme has been allocated a budget of £25 million (around €30 million), which is £10 million (around €12 million) more than in the first phase.

Which technologies are supported?

Households in the UK will be able to apply for receiving grants in the form of vouchers, which will also cover costs of technical monitoring and evaluation. Vouchers will be worth the same and cover the same technologies as in the first phase of the scheme, namely:

• Ground source or water source heat pumps - £1250 (around €1514)
• Air to water heat pumps - £850 (around €1030)
• Solar thermal hot water panels - £300 (around €363)
• Biomass boilers - £950 (around €1150)

Pre-registration for the scheme was initiated on 2 April 2012, with applications open from 1 May 2012.

Long-term support for households delayed until summer 2013

RHPP one-off payment grants serve as an interim support scheme, until the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) - a scheme that currently provides long-term support over a 20-year period for renewable heat installations in the non-domestic sector - also enters a second phase whereby households will also be eligible. Air-source heat pumps that are excluded from the first phase of RHI are expected to be eligible for long-term tariff support under the second phase.

When the RHI was launched (March 2011), the UK government intended to introduce the second phase of the RHI for the domestic sector already in late 2012. Recently, however, the UK DECC announced that it will only run consultation on proposals for the deployment of renewable heat in households in September 2012, with the likelihood of implementation in summer 2013.

UK government reveals long term vision of how to cut emissions from heating

At the end of March 2012, the UK government also revealed its vision of how it can cut emissions from heating homes, businesses and industry in the decades ahead. The Heat Strategy sets out in three stages what the government intends to undertake in order to reduce emissions from heating:

• Until 2020, the government’s focus will be on improving energy efficiency of buildings and industry by supporting early take up of renewable heat and supporting innovation;
• In the 2020s and 2030s, the government will focus on creating the right frameworks to support widespread use of low carbon heat technologies in homes and businesses;
• By 2050, the government aims to achieve entirely carbon-free heating for buildings by deploying a range of renewable options like heat pumps in buildings.