Extracts from the March-April 2003 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

2. Clear Skies from Local Renewables

The government has launched a £10m ‘Clear Skies’ campaign to encourage homeowners, schools and communities across the UK to take the initiative in developing and installing their own renewable energy schemes. The ‘Clear Skies’ initiative is seen as a vital component of the Government’s renewables strategy to capture the imagination of individuals and local communities that want to play their part in the renewables revolution. The Scottish Executive is putting up £3.7million to fund its own parallel scheme, with shared website and criteria. According to the DTI, suggestions for local projects could include:

• A ‘solar street’ where water heating panels are fitted to the roof of every house in a street;
• - A small-scale hydropower project in a school;
• - Installing a wind turbine to provide electricity to a hospital;
• - Using energy crops, such as willow or poplar, to provide heat for a community farm.

Energy Minister Brian Wilson said: "Renewable energy can be about thinking small as well as big. The ‘Clear Skies’ initiative is an excellent opportunity for community groups and homeowners to bring forward useful projects. There is huge potential, for instance, in the encouragement of small wind generation-proven technology for which there is a worldwide requirement."

The capital grants programme will be supplemented with measures designed to increase the uptake of renewable energy technologies and create a better understanding of the range of benefits they can deliver. The initiative will provide training and accreditation for professional installers to ensure that the general public can trust the products being installed.

Brian Wilson added: "Many UK homes are poorly insulated with heat escaping straight out of roofs and windows, leading to more expensive fuel bills for consumers and higher emissions. This is why the ‘Clear Skies’ campaign also promotes energy efficiency."

The ‘Clear Skies’ initiative is the governments response to the recommendation by the Cabinet Office’s Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) that up to £10 m of support be provided as capital grants for ‘community’ and household schemes. The PIU had noted that "issues on the planning front will not get renewable energy off the ground unless the public extends its general support for renewable energy to support for renewable energy in local situations. This makes community engagement crucial, so that more people are either individually involved in renewable energy schemes, or able to see them."

Responsibility for the day to day running of the scheme lies with a consortium led by the Building Research Establishment and Haygarth, the programme management contractor. Anyone with a green energy idea for their home, school or community should go to www.clear-skies.org or phone the ‘Clear Skies’ hotline: 0870 2430930. Pity though they adopted the same name as the new US energy programme....

* The Clear Skies scheme has been known as the ‘Community and Household Capital Grant Scheme for Renewable Energy’ whilst being designed. In parallel, the Community Renewables Initiative (CRI) was launched in Feb.2002, and provides advice and free training on all topics associated with renewable energy. A similar service is provided by the Renewable Energy Advice Centre (REAC) pilots. Both schemes are funded by the DTI and have already been successful in helping communities establish their own renewable projects. The Countryside Agency runs the CRI and the Energy Saving Trust run the REAC’s.

The Clear Skies scheme evidently does not include support of PV solar. However, the DTI has pointed out that community groups and homeowners can apply for funding for PV through the £20m Major Photovoltaics Demonstration Programme (MDP). This should see PV installed on 3,000 homes and 140 medium/large non-domestic buildings- a total of 9MWp installed. More details on the helpline 0800-298-3978 or www.solarpvgrants.co.uk 19 new PV projects were recently given the go-ahead under phase II of the MDP. More in Renew 143.

Solar Subsidies

In answer to a Parliamentary Question on solar pay back times last Sept, Brian Wilson, Energy Minister, replied ‘The typical payback period for photovoltaic installations is 50-100 years. The major photovoltaics demonstration programme effectively halves this payback period for the purchaser by offering 50 per cent. grants on this technology. Our rationale for supporting photovoltaics is that it is a technology at a relatively early stage of development, but with significant potential for further cost reduction and for meeting our electricity needs in the future. Solar water heating is a proven and commercial technology with a payback period of 15-20 years. No financial support is currently available for this technology through central government, although such support is currently being considered under the £10 million Community and Household renewables scheme. Support may, however, be available through local authorities and energy suppliers.’