The On-site renewables industry was caught off guard yesterday by the sudden closure of Phase 1 of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP). Some installers were given less than an hour’s notice of the closure, leaving them little time to react. 

DECC circulated an announcement on the 3 February, the same day as the closure itself, saying “The Low Carbon Buildings Programme (LCBP), Phase-1 and Phase-2 has closed to all new applications for grants for electrical microgeneration as of 5pm, Wednesday 3rd February”.

The LCBP was the main government grant scheme for on-site renewables installations. Phase 1 of the programme offered grants to homeowners for domestic renewables installations.

It had originally been intended that the grant programme would remain open until the end of March.

The REA’s Head of On-site Renewables Stuart Pocock said, ‘The speed of the announcement means many homeowners will not have been able to submit their applications in time and may potentially be left out of pocket after submitting planning applications. Some may put down a deposit on an installation’. He goes on to say, ‘It is now essential that Government ensures that the benefits of the recently announced Feed-in Tariffs are quickly communicated to consumers’. 

This means that the newly launched Feed-in Tariff scheme, due to go live in April this year, is the only funding mechanism available to the general public for renewable electricity installations.

DECC said that the remaining un-allocated LCBP funding would be focussed on thermal microgeneration in the run-up to the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), scheduled for April 2011.

Please read the DECC announcement below.

Please see the REA separate press release on the Feed-in Tariff and the Renewable Heat Incentive.

Notes for Editors:

1.    The Renewable Energy Association (REA) is the industrial body for the UK’s renewables industry. Its 600 members cover all renewable energy types and all scales from the energy majors to emerging companies in new energy technologies.

2.    FITs supports the following renewable electricity technologies up to 5MW in size; solar PV; wind; hydro-electric; biomass electricity; and Anaerobic Digestion of organic wastes.  Dedicated heat technologies including solar thermal, ground and air-source heat pumps, geothermal and biomass boilers will follow next year under the Renewable Heat Incentive offering plenty of choice.

3.    REA Feed-in Tariff press release and briefing can be found here: http://www.r-e-a.net/info/rea-news/details-of-feed-in-tariff-scheme-for-local-renewables-unveiled

4.    REA RHI press release and briefing can be found here: http://www.r-e-a.net/info/rea-news/100201RHI