Getting paid to power your home...

...using renewable sources, that is.
The power and transport sectors are two of the largest contributors to rising CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions (as shown in the World greenhouse gas emission chart by WRI).



















A great deal of research has been conducted on ways to reduce these emissions in the transport sector-- automobile companies have improved on spark ignition and diesel engine designs so that they can run on less fuel; some other companies have designed hybrid engines and fuel cell (PEMFC) engines, although there still remains an obvious gap between many governments' targets and what is on ground.
The power production sector is also making 'green' progress by looking into solar, wind, tidal and bioenergy (i.e. combined heat and power (CHP), anaerobic digestion) systems to generate cleaner electricity and heat. It is not always easy to incorporate these renewable energy systems (due to problems highlighted in an earlier post), so in order to encourage the use of these systems, Governments have decided to implement certain policies. Today's post will briefly explore the Renewable Heat Incentive that the UK Government formally established over a week ago (22 June 2011).

Basically, UK homes and businesses will get paid for up to 20 years when they generate heat for their own consumption using renewable sources. We're talking as much as 18 pence per kWh of heat generated, depending on the renewable source and size of installation used (see here for the extensive list of tariffs).

Set to begin this July, non-residential (public sector) UK renewable energy installations will benefit from extra incomes from the Government, while residential sectors will benefit some time in October 2011. One obvious question is, how do residential and non-residential sectors who've had no prior knowledge of renewable energy set up these systems?
Answer: private companies like Ownergy London (quite like OwnEnergy in the USA) would help set up solar thermal, photovoltaic and other renewable systems. I say good luck to the UK folks, and the rest of us will be watching and learning closely.

For more information on the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), head on to the DECC site here.

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