Stephen Mosley, MP for Chester, who takes a strong interest in energy policy matters, has submitted two Parliamentary Questions to the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC):

1/ What plans does the Secretary of State have to support Solar Thermal Energy?.

2/ What plans does the Secretary of State have for the Domestic Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) after 1st April 2012?

So far, no answer has arrived from DECC Stephen will contact us upon receipt of a response from DECC. However…

Our ideal response would be the following:

“DECC’s plans for Solar Thermal Energy and the Domestic Renewable Heat Premium Payment will be by implementing the following actions:

• Guaranteeing that solar thermal will have competitive parity with solar PV in that solar thermal pays back the same number of times in its expected lifetime as solar PV, thanks to DECC providing financial support comprising a combination of RHPP (implemented right away) and RHI subsidy due in 2013.
• Immediately increasing the RHPP to a minimum of £800 for the following 15 months, or at least until the RHPP comes in, this being done as a budget neutral measure, in that the value of any RHPP payment will be deducted from the final stages of any future RHI payment, the payment of which will be simply deemed based on net energy benefit (ie heat delivered minus electrical parasitics) not gross thermal heat delivered.
• Cleaning up the competition problems which distort the solar heating market by reforming the Microgeneration Certification Scheme and linked market-limiting documents, including building regulations, and  EST documents (which, for example, conceal the carbon parasitics of old solar, presumably at the request of its one solar sponsor) and by requiring trade bodies to represent all members properly, and not just to allow a largely historically-biased technological cartel to ride roughshod over UK invented and UK manufactured products.
• Cleaning up the Legionella safety problems which undermine the solar thermal industry, so that there is proper alignment between the current heat pump standard and the solar thermal standard, which currently falls far below it.”

We now have a new Energy Minister, in the form of Ed Davies. Hopefully he respects the law of the land more than his predecessor: a matter is pertinent to our final two points. It’s time for change at DECC!