The Renewable Heat Incentive, RHI, needs fixing, before it even has a start date!

Dear Readers,

How successfully do you think the UK renewables industry will take the flak when, as a consequence of the forthcoming massive £860M Renewable Heat Incentive, RHI subsidy scheme…

• potentially overspending £millions (MCS industry legitimised solar thermal performance inflation fraud in mains-pumped solar water heating)
• funding unsafe plumbing (risky twin coil cylinders / hot water storage / legionella / solar thermal and heat pumps)
• funding unneccessary installations (which offers no significant carbon benefit: electric powered heat pumps in “on-gas-grid” areas)
• funding dirty technology (which risks an epidemic of air pollution deaths and asthma: wood fuelled heating in already-polluted London.)

… our supposedly green and ethical industry gets slammed by the media as “as short-sighted and as selfish as the banks”, when all the damning evidence starts pouring in, which may be quite quickly? How can the renewable energy industry, argue successfully for an extension of RHI funding if this context causes a public backlash? Surely it is better to start off properly?

We asked the funders of the RHI, the Government’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to look closely at these wasteful, risky, pointless and dirty issues in the RHI. Are DECC just pressing on regardless? Please – let’s have a superb Renewable Heat Incentive, one which is great for the green energy customer, the planet and for British industry.

You hear it first at Solartwin (nationwide zero carbon solar water heating and high efficiency PV suppliers) who care about the big picture.

Regards, Barry Johnston.

PS All the links are to short videos: I hope you find them interesting.