No real help from the UK government on micro-generation
The UK prime minister has said fighting climate change will require business, Government and individuals to work together, and last week he launched a series of initiatives to make UK homes greener. But in my mind there is very little there for the individual, and very little concrete action from Government and no clear strategy around which to build a business.
There will be money to launch an “Act on Co2″ advice line, which will apparently offer free advice, and a green neighbourhoods initiative which will aim to reduce CO2 in 100 neighbourhoods throughout England. So there is money for talking and some sort unclear initiative providing a bit of money here and a bit there. The green neighbourhoods initiative is supposed to encourage local alliances of residents, community groups, local government and businesses to build consortia that will be able to bid for funds from a measly £10 million. It is unclear who will lead these consortia, and seems to be an unnecessary complex way to go about it.
A much simpler and clearer way forward might to be use grants to push energy efficiency coupled with an effective “feed-in tariff” approach such as that used with great success by Germany, to provide a real drive towards micro generation. This would reduce the pay-back period from over 60 years to under
20, making it economically as well as environmentally worthwhile for
homeowners to invest.
Provide incentives that make it economically sensible for individuals and businesses to invest in energy efficiency and micro-generation and by and large most people will, and once things get going the costs will decrease further, bringing on even more people. You know it makes sense!
Written by ashleys on April 5th, 2008 with
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