Renewable Energy Installer February 2015 | Page 27

Knowledge: RHI update
Warming up the RHI
Innasol’s founder and CEO Silvio Spiess shares his 2015 renewable heating
predictions and explains why his company is committed to helping more and more
home and business owners enjoy its benefits
he Renewable Heat Incentive,
which was introduced in
November 2011 for commercial
use and extended in April 2014 to
include domestic use, has since
given UK consumers a fantastic opportunity
to save money and reduce their carbon
footprint. As of autumn 2014, more than
23,000 renewable heating applications had
been approved by Ofgem – a huge amount, of
which 6,000 units have been installed through
the commercial scheme into buildings such as
farms, schools, hospitals, hotels and
office buildings.
T
Biomass gold rush
Biomass has so far performed well ahead
of DECC’s expectations. It is proving
particularly popular on the non-domestic side:
as of September 2014, of all non-domestic
installations 94.4 percent were biomass. On
the domestic side, biomass is second only to
air source heat pumps in uptake.
Some have speculated that the renewable
heat market could experience a ‘gold rush’ for
biomass boilers in 2015 as a growing number
of businesses and homes wake up to the
savings that biomass brings - both in carbon
emissions and for the pocket. This is highly
probable, and is reflected in my expectation of
further strong growth of biomass in 2015.
RHI
The RHI is forecast to grow in popularity,
particularly throughout the domestic market
as homeowners get wise to the initiative
and snap it up before more tariff degressions
are put in place. This mentality is spurred
on by January’s tariff degression, which put
the commercial rate at 6.8 p/kWh and the
domestic at 10.98 p/kWh - less than initially
expected.
The volatile oil price will continue
to fluctuate and, despite dropping at the
moment, is bound to increase in the long term
when compared to cheaper options such as
wood chips and pellets. As decision makers
realise this, choosing renewable heat for
Band of brothers: Innasol founder Silvio Spiess says his company’s accreditation scheme offers the
best support package to installers moving into the growing market of biomass
public projects will become more prevalent
practice.
Hot on training
As subsidies continue to decrease, it is vital
that we capitalise on the maturation of our
industry to ensure longevity. We can do this by
creating jobs, developing our staff’s skills and
ensuring exceptional standards of customer
service. It is in this way that we will prepare
the renewable heating sector to move away
from government support whilst remaining
attractive to consumers. 2015 is the perfect
time for this – our technology’s increased
popularity should cause renewable heat
businesses to put a stronger focus on training
and further invest in green job creation. I think
we are going to see those companies that
provide training - such as ourselves - broaden
the level and scope of their offerings.
This is something that Innasol is
proud to be leading. Through our creation
of the renewable heating industry’s first
accreditation scheme and our recently
expanded BPEC-approved training facilities,
we are dedicated to ensuring high standards
of installation and customer service
nationwide. We have made it a priority to
provide an array of courses which develop the
skills needed by our engineers to go above
and beyond, covering subjects like business
strategy and customer service that will enable
our experts to thrive.
Renewable heat and the RHI remains,
in my opinion, the UK’s greatest ally in our
attempt to reach carbon emissions targets
and mitigate climate change. The one thing
standing in the way is a lack of awareness
and understanding of just how easy it really is
to get on board. The industry has made great
gains in 2014, and hopefully 2015 will bring
more of the same.
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