Budget Bonus For Microgeneration in UK
London, United Kingdom, March 22, 2006
The microgeneration industry today warmly welcomed Chancellor Gordon
Brown's Budget announcement that an additional £50 million will
be available to develop microgeneration technologies under the new
Low Carbon Buildings Programme. The Government intends for this
to be an opportunity for extra money to be spent by local authorities,
schools, and other public bodies using their bulk purchasing capability
in order to boost mass production and accelerate reductions in cost
of mass market microgeneration technologies.
The Low Carbon Buildings Programme is aimed at householders, communities
and large scale projects which install microgeneration technologies
such as small wind turbines, solar panels, ground source heat pumps
and micro-combined heat and power.
BWEA CEO Marcus Rand said: "This is fantastic news for the rapidly
developing small wind sector. We are confident that the huge public
interest in small wind will ensure this additional fund is used
to the full. This additional allocation for microgeneration demonstrates
that the Government is realising the potential of this sector and
giving it the weight it rightly deserves".
Dave Sowden, Chief Executive of the Micropower Council said: "This
is a real boost to the microgeneration industry. We have long been
putting the case for market transforming policies of this nature.
We are very pleased the government is taking such a strong interest
in the scope for microgeneration to reduce carbon, save consumers
money, and change attitudes in the way people regard their own use
of energy". The Department of Trade and Industry is due to publish
its Microgeneration Strategy next week which will set out details
of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme and how the Government will
remove barriers to microgeneration, including metering and planning
regulation.
Meanwhile BWEA has launched a new online resource for members of
the public and businesses who want to investigate the possibility
of having their own domestic wind turbine. BWEA's one-stop shop
(www.bwea.com/small) is a comprehensive guide to small wind energy
and provides information ranging from technologies available through
planning and grid issues to FAQs and case studies.
The UK Treasury's budget statement is shown below:
The Government is committed to delivering a strong economy based
not just on high and stable levels of growth and employment but
also on high standards of environmental care. This Budget sets out
the next stage in the Government's strategy for tackling the global
challenge of climate change including:
•
encouraging energy efficiency in the business sector through an
increase in the climate change levy, in line with inflation, from
1 April 2007;
• further measures to improve household energy efficiency, including
an extra 250,000 installations of subsidised insulation in British
homes over the next two years, funding for local authority-led
publicity and incentive schemes, trialling the use of 'smart'
energy meters, and a new voluntary initiative with major retailers
to reduce the energy use of consumer electronics;
• the development of a new National Institute of Energy Technologies,
in partnership with the private sector, to better leverage the
substantial public sector funding of energy research;
• further support for the development of alternative energy sources,
including an additional £50 million to develop microgeneration
technologies and the launch of a consultation document on the
barriers to large-scale commercial deployment in the UK of carbon
capture and storage; • further detail on the Renewable Transport
Fuel Obligation to increase the use of biofuels – with the obligation
set at 2.5 per cent in 2008-09 and 3.75 per cent in 2009-10, and
the biofuels duty incentive maintained at 20 pence per litre in
2008-09;
• reforms to vehicle excise duty (VED) to sharpen environmental
incentives including reducing the rate to zero for cars with the
very lowest carbon emissions and introducing a new top band for
the most polluting new cars. 50 per cent of cars will see their
VED frozen or reduced; and
• the deferral to 1 September 2006 of the inflation-only increase
in main road fuel duties, reflecting continuing volatility in
the oil market; and the same increase of 1.25 pence per litre,
also from 1 September 2006, in duty for rebated fuels, maintaining
the differential with main fuel duty rates to support the Oils
Strategy.
The
Budget also reports on the Government’s strategy for tackling other
environmental challenges, including: • an increase in the value
of the landfill tax credit scheme to £60 million in 2006-07 with
a challenge to the private and voluntary sector partners in the
scheme to provide additional opportunities for young people to volunteer
on environmental projects; and
•
a freeze in the rate of the aggregates levy.
|
