The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has launched a new competition as part of the extended Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP) which was extended in March this year. The £6 million competition will help registered social housing providers install heat pumps, solar thermal and biomass boilers into their properties.
“This new investment in renewable heat projects will enable social landlords across Great Britain to get innovative renewable heating kit into the homes of their social tenants” said Energy and Climate Change Minister Greg Barker. “This will help save money on energy bills and provide low carbon alternatives to traditional heating systems. More than 100 social landlords are already taking advantage of over £13million under our renewable heat competitions. I would encourage more social landlords to rise to the challenge and get involved.”
According to Assistant Director of the National Housing Federation, Helen Williams, the competition builds on the excellent work already conducted by housing associations to promote renewable heating, particularly in off-grid areas, in order to reduce energy bills and tackle fuel poverty.
“The social housing sector has the potential to make a real difference for residents, so it is great this is being recognised” Ms Williams added. “This will help build the required expertise as we move toward the introduction of RHI domestic.”
There will be two bidding windows for the competition, the first of which closes on 28th June 2013 and the second on 27th September 2013. Projects for the first bidding window will have to be completed by March 2014 and for the second by June 2014. The scheme as a whole will be run by the Energy Saving Trust and bids judged by a panel of experts according to a range of criteria which includes value for money, fuel to be replaced, additional energy efficiency measures to be installed and plans to work with local communities. Social landlords already allocated money under previous rounds of the competition are eligible to apply for further funding on new projects.
DECC will hold a number of events to help social landlords through the application process and the first round of successful bidders will be announced in the summer.
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