Eurocrats impose delays on cheaper rural heating

The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which will encourage the use of biomass boilers, solar water heating and ground source heat pumps to produce heat, will now not become operational until November at the earliest.

The announcement has drawn criticism from farming and rural organisations who were set to benefit from the policy which Whitehall bosses had claimed would “revolutionise the way heat is generated”.

Thought to be the first of its kind worldwide, the RHI was in particular said to be of potential benefit to farming and rural businesses which have the space and resources to make the best use of biomass boilers and solar water heating.

Rural firms are also often not on the gas grid making the scheme even more attractive.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) told the Yorkshire Post the last-minute postponement was due to its failure to obtain State Aids clearance from the European Community.

The National Farmers’ Union chief renewable energy and climate change adviser, Dr Jonathan Scurlock, said the delay was extremely disappointing.

“Farmers and growers expecting to benefit from supplying heat using biomass boilers, solar water heating and ground source heat pumps will be disheartened at this dramatic setback to their business plans,” he said.

“The UK government has repeatedly put off the implementation of the RHI, resulting in potential customers holding off purchasing decisions and technology providers hesitating in investing in the supply chain. So far, this has achieved the opposite of what the RHI was intended to do, which was to stimulate the market for renewable heating.

“Investor confidence has been dented by the lack of details on scheme operation, on top of confusing Government signals about its commitment to other renewable energy incentives such as the Feed-in Tariffs and Renewables Obligation.”

The DECC spokeswoman said she shared the NFU’s frustration and the Government remained committed to the scheme.

”We are fully committed to introducing the Renewable Heat Incentive. However, we understand that the European Commission state aid approval for the RHI will be subject to a reduction in the large biomass tariff.

“We expect to receive written confirmation of this very shortly. This means we now need to change the regulations before the scheme can open to applications.

“We understand this is frustrating for industry who are already gearing up for the RHI however we hope to get this sorted out soon and open the scheme before the end of November.”