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Third time unlucky - RHI cuts

The second round of RHI cuts in January were expected to hit the renewable energy industry hard but as evidenced by the most recent shock RHI degression announcement, they didn’t hit hard enough. For the third successive time, both the small commercial biomass and domestic biomass RHI schemes will be cut by 25% and 20% respectively.

Despite the reduction in the last quarter, the small commercial biomass tariff growth rate was still over the government’s threshold. Therefore, the small commercial biomass category will be subject to a 20% reduction with an automatic 5% reduction applied to account for the overall scheme expenditure exceeding its trigger. The tariff as of 1st July 2015 will be as follows:

Tier Current RateRate from 1st July 2015
1 5.87p/kWh 4.4p/kWh
2 1.56p/kWh 1.17p/kWh

As at 30 April 2015, the forecast expenditure for the domestic biomass scheme was in excess of the expenditure threshold for that quarter (£8.4m). This figure also exceeded the category’s super trigger; therefore the domestic biomass tariff will be reduced by 20%, coming into effect 1 July 2015. DECC have stated, that although the forecast expenditure threshold for the next quarter...

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Generating in the moonlight

Technology unveiled last week by renowned scientists at the prestigious “Polar Foil” climate conference in Switzerland will make it possible for solar energy to be generated through moonlight.

Previously, solar PV panels only generated electricity during daylight hours. Moonlight is reflected sunlight and is therefore too weak to generate solar electricity. The currently unnamed, redesigned solar PV tiles have a ten-fold increased sensitivity to solar energy, thus allowing them to operate during the night.

Speaking in Switzerland, the project leader Ron Teal labelled this technology to be “revolutionary” and “a saviour to the Earth’s rapidly escalating climate problems and increasing worldwide fuel demands”. He warned though that further tests in efficiency and durability are required before the technology is available commercially. It is unclear as to when these panels will eventually reach the market, experts predict their arrival to be no sooner than 2018.

As a technology which could help the world meet it’s renewable energy targets within a matter of years, Duncan Renewables will be keeping a keen eye on the commercial progress of this new solar PV technology and wi...

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RHI Cuts: Round 2

Despite the RHI cuts in January 2015, the uptake of both the commercial and domestic schemes has continued to increase substantially. As a result, DECC have announced a second round of tariff cuts effective from 1st April 2015. Affected schemes are the Small Commercial Biomass and the Domestic Biomass technologies which will be subjected to a 15% and 20% degression respectively.

Small Commercial Biomass will be cut by 15% due to its forecast expenditure exceeding its expenditure threshold (or trigger) by £38.9 million and the category having already been reduced in the previous quarter. With the overall commercial RHI scheme also having surpassed the 100% expenditure threshold, a further 5% degression contributes to the overall 15% cut in the small commercial biomass RHI tariff. The tariff as of 1st April 2015 will be as follows:

Tier Current RateRate from 1st April 2015
1 6.8p/kWh 5.87p/kWh
2 1.8p/kWh 1.56p/kWh

Since the tariff reduction last quarter in the Biomass Plant category did not slow growth in the domestic RHI scheme, domestic biomass technologies will be subject to the greater degression of 20%. Domestic biomass plants exceeded the super trigger/expe...

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RHI stats uncovered to reveal one clear message for the future

Non-domestic RHI

November 2014 marked the third anniversary of the introduction of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (“RHI”) payments and based on the official statistics, the initiative has been strongly supported by businesses and homeowners across Yorkshire & Humberside. The area accounts for 10% of all registered systems in Great Britain with the number of applications made in the last quarter of 2014 being triple the number made in the equivalent period in 2013.

The renewable heat market has been identified as a sector that could provide around a third of the UK Government’s target of 15% of energy from renewables by 2020 and meet longer term decarbonisation targets.

The headline figures mask significant variations in the take-up of individual technologies. Small and medium-sized biomass systems continue to account for the overwhelming majority of installations, accounting for 95% of all applications. Biomass is popular due to the relative ease of installation when retro-fitting to existing properties and also because of the proven track record of delivering heat in all conditions. Countries such as Austria and Germany, who pioneered its development, hav...

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Renewable News Round-Up - 28/01/15

We’re in the midst of Winter and renewable energy systems throughout the UK are working overtime to keep households warm and with electricity. Reports on the increased uptake of Solar PV and the increasing popularity of renewable energy globally suggest that in Winters to come, the number of households powered by renewables will keep increasing rapidly. Keep checking the Renewable News Round-Up throughout 2015 for updates on all of the latest renewable energy uptake statistics.
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Soaring increase in Solar PV triggers tariff cuts –26/01/2015

During 2014, solar panels had been fitted on the roofs of more than 125,000 homes in the UK which could trigger the first non-automatic degression in the Feed-in Tariff for small-scale solar PV systems since 2012. As of April 2015, tariffs could be cut by 3.5% for installations smaller than 10kW and between 50kW and 5MW.

Figures published by the government showed the capacity of roof- and ground-mounted solar PV systems installed in 2014 to total 700MW. This is the equivalent of powering 212,000 homes.

The FiT is usually reduced automatically every 9 months but according to the Sol...

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