Renew On Line (UK) 53

Extracts from NATTA's journal
Renew, issue 153 Jan-Feb2005

5. Funding programmes

 £15.5m more for Community Energy

Thousands of homes in England, Scotland and Wales will benefit from17 new heating schemes backed by £15.5m from round 7 and 8 of the government’s Community Energy programme. The schemes aim to improve heating and energy efficiency and tackle fuel poverty, helping 19,000 people on low incomes and cutting carbon emissions by almost 10, 000 tonnes a year.

Among the grants was £4.35m to Southwark Borough, London, for a new heating network serving almost 2,500 homes and 14 public buildings- an innovative system which will generate more energy savings. Other include:

* Newcastle City Council: over £1.9m to connect a new energy centre to 1,200 homes & 7 public buildings

* Highland Council: more than £1.5m for a new system using heat from a nearby distillery to serve 540 homes;

* Southampton City Council: over £3.5m for a new community heating network connecting 1,720 homes, a school, care home and library;

* Aberdeen Heat and Power: more than £1.3m for a new CHP network serving 500 homes.

Subsequently, Whitty announced a further £6.7m for 10 more projects under round 9 of the scheme.  A full list of the successful round 7-9 bids will be in Renew 154.   Overall, more than £42m has been provided in grants since 2002, but the scheme is scheduled to finish in March, although one the agenda items for the Climate Review (see box) is its extension.

£8.5m for local  renewables

Energy Minister Mike O’Brien announced an extra £8.5m in funding for small scale renewables projects including PV solar, for schools, houses and commercial buildings.  The PV element of the extra funding brings the total for the Major PV Demonstration Programme (MDP) to £31m and will, the DTI says ‘enable a further three funding rounds to take place in 2005/06. This will ensure that help for household applications and medium to large-scale solar electric power installations continues.’

O’Brien said: “In future, energy generation will often be small-scale and local. We need to change the way we think about energy. That starts at grass roots level- in our homes and communities- which is why I am delighted to announce extra funding.”

He added “Initiatives such as these help to deliver the message that as well as being responsible for energy consumption we can play a part in producing it as well”.

He noted that “Nearly 5,000 projects have been offered grant support to date” and claimed that the extra funding “will help many more projects get off the drawing board and become a reality”.

In addition, O’Brien announced that not-for -profit organisations, communities, and households will benefit from new funding to extend the Clear Skies initiative for a further year, bringing the total finding to £12.5m. Clear Skies grants are available for a variety of renewable technologies where communities can get up to 50 %of capital costs up to a maximum of £100,00 towards capital costs.

The DTI added that ‘these two initiatives will continue in their current format until March 2006 by which time it is intended that a low carbon buildings programme will have been developed in order to supersede this two initiatives.’ Let’s hope it gets sufficient funds to cover both elements properly.

* For more on the £10m Clear Skies programme          see:  www.clear-skies.org   In Feb. 2004 funding for PV in the MDP, was expanded to £25m, which should enable 2-3 extra rounds to be run in 2004/05. The new funding extends that to 2005/6.  See: www.solarpvgrants.co.uk