Baxi UK has welcomed a government decision to extend the Renewable Heat Premium Payment (RHPP), which was announced shortly before the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said that it would delay the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) until summer 2013.
One of Britain’s largest suppliers of energy efficient central heating boiler systems and controls, Baxi UK believes that extending the RHPP will go some way towards filling the chasm left by the deferment of the RHI. The second phase of the RHPP came into effect a week last Monday, adding more than £10 million to provide households with money off renewable, energy efficient technologies such as solar PV, biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps.
Discussing the extension of the RHPP, Simon Osborne of Baxi UK said: “RHPP has always been seen as a precursor to domestic RHI, so as the government pushes back the latter, we are glad that a new RHPP will bridge the gap”.
Mr Osborne added: “Ideally, both schemes need to work together in order to encourage individual installers, as well as homeowners, to start thinking about renewables. RHPP will definitely support early adopters, but might have a limited scope if accompanying tariff payments are not announced soon.
“If installers are going to invest in training on renewables, then they need to know what the potential market is going to be – and this will be determined, to a large extent, by domestic RHI”.
In total, the second phase of the RHPP will be worth £25 million. Providing private homeowners and social landlords with an incentive to improve the energy efficiency of homes throughout the UK, the RHPP has been widely lauded since its introduction in August 2011.
Announcing the second phase, Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said: “We’re increasing the budget from £15 million to £25 million, for the first time we’re including community schemes and there’ll be more social housing schemes that can benefit. Those people who are reliant on expensive oil or electric heating should consider applying to the Premium Payment scheme to cut their fuel bills in the long-term”.
Baxi UK’s Simon Osborne concluded that the RHPP was a “massive opportunity to impact fuel switching and alleviate fuel poverty”.
