UK govt launches low carbon rewards for home and businesses
03 Apr 2010
The UK government launched yesterday two schemes across the country to encourage energy savings and small-scale power generation which will help home and businesses to save money on fuel bills, reduce carbon emissions and generate their own low-carbon electricity.
The carbon reduction commitment energy efficiency scheme (CRCEES) for organisations such as supermarkets, hotels, hospitals, local bodies and government departments is expected to save approximately £1 billion annually by 2020 through cost-effective energy efficiency measures.
The revenue from the scheme will be recycled back to participants with those who have increased efficiency receiving more money.
The other feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme encourages take up of household electricity generation units by certain energy suppliers who will pay for the power produced from small-scale renewable energy and combined heat and power (CHP) units.
Households and businesses can install low emission power generating systems including solar, wind, hydro, anaerobic digestion units of up to 5MW capacity and CHP units of up to 2kW, who would be paid money for every unit of electricity they produce and get an extra 3 pence/KWh for every unit they don't use and export to the grid.
They could also benefit from cheaper electricity bills. A typical 2.5kW, well sited solar power installation could bring in annual savings of £140 and earnings of £900, according to the department of energy and climate change (ECC).
