Knowledge: RHI update
Making the grade
Stephen Knight, Navitron, judges the first year of the domestic RHI, the positive
and negative aspects of the scheme and how it can be improved
fter years of waiting, the dRHI
was launched one year ago –
allowing the industry to end
speculation and find out if the
scheme would truly deliver.
Since the launch, there’s been
tremendous uptake – with OFGEM reporting
over 22,600 systems approved in just ten
months; however, the incentive has been
quite patchy overall. The dRHI has performed
well in some areas and left much to desire in
others, which is why it’s important to analyse
and grade the scheme from a variety of
different perspectives.
A
Marketability
The dRHI is not an
easy sell.
Having lost its
initial buzz following
four years of delays,
finding the right
audience for the
scheme has been a struggle.
Many homeowners who
may have been considering renewable heat
when the scheme was first announced have
either lost confidence in or forgotten about
the d-RHI or, in some cases, spent their entire
renewable energy budget on installing solar
PV to claim Feed-in Tariff income.
Year 1
Grade: C
Application process & decision times
If homeowners knew
about the hoops they
need to jump through
to make a successful
dRHI application,
many would
seriously reconsider
applying.
The need for holding
or obtaining a Energy Performance Certificate
(EPC) and having to undergo a Green
Deal Assessment (GDA), combined with
ensuring installations are certified under the
Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS),
has made applying for the dRHI very difficult.
Year 1
Grade: D
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The entire process can also take several
months to complete, and many aspects of
the application need to be done in a timely
manner; however, once submitted, a decision
can take as long as OFGEM sees fit.
An easier application process with a
guaranteed decision timeline would definitely
help boost the scheme’s grade in this
category.
Incentivisation vs penalisation
As of now, the
Energy Savings
Opportunity Scheme
(ESOS) is only
mandatory for large
UK undertakings,
mainly businesses.
Eventually though, ESOS
could evolve to provide
government with the opportunity to penalise
people with poor efficiency in their home.
Although the reduction of tariff rates is
causing the dRHI to lose a bit of steam, it’s
better for homeowners to take advantage of
the incentive as a way of making money for
increasing energy efficiency instead of being
punished for low energy performance in the
future.
Year 1
Grade: D
Boosting the image and sales of solar
thermal panels
The domestic solar
thermal industry has
been devastated by
the dRHI.
The major issue
is that the scheme
never fully assesses
how solar thermal can
contribute to reducing a
home’s utilities and consumption because
it only allows panels to earn payments for
heating water. This has led many homeowners
on a budget to choose solar PV for their roof
and biomass boilers or air source heat pumps
(ASHPs) in their home – reducing the overall
need for solar thermal.
Year 1
Grade: A
Hit and miss: Although the dRHI has performed
well in some areas during its first year, the solar
thermal industry has been left heavily damaged
by it, says Stephen Knight, Navitron
To solve this, the scheme shouldn’t
exclude homeowners from earning payments
for using solar thermal for space heating,
and instead, should further incentivise
homeowners to install this technology.
Boosting the image and sales of ASHPs
and biomass boilers
ASHPs and biomass
have been very
successful as part of
the dRHI.
Figures from
February show that
ASHPs and biomass
boiler installations make
up 65 percent of the total
number of dRHI systems approved since the
start of the scheme.
These technologies really sell themselves,
and should continue to do so through 2015.
Year 1
Grade: A
Year 1 results
The dRHI has
displayed high
performance in
some areas and is
underperforming
in others, resulting
in an average first year with
room for improvement.
Overall year 1
Grade:B