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Heat scheme hots up

Umbrella company and holiday cottages are first two successful applicants to low carbon heating incentive Umbrella supplier Booth Brothers …

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Umbrella company and holiday cottages are first two successful applicants to low carbon heating incentive

Umbrella supplier Booth Brothers in Sheffield entered the history books today by becoming one of the first places in the UK to get the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive.

Its offices, housed in an 18th century former corn mill in Penistone, will be kept warm through an underfloor heating system powered by a renewable energy heat pump.

The second installation to be accredited is at a set of holiday cottages in East Yorkshire. A ground source heat pump will provide heat and hot water to five holiday lets at Broadgate Farm Cottages in Beverley.

The £860m Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was launched last year to make it more financially attractive for industry and businesses to install low carbon heating systems like heat pumps, biomass boilers or solar thermal panels.

The RHI is expected to increase the number of installations in industry, the commercial and public sector by seven times to around 126,000 and support the thousands of existing jobs in the heating sector.

Climate Change Minister Greg Barker said:

“It’s fantastic news that the Renewable Heat Incentive has received its first two successful applicants, and this is just the start.

“Renewable heat is a largely untapped resource and an important new green industry of the future. It’ll help the UK shift away from fossil fuel, reducing carbon emissions and encouraging innovation, jobs and growth in new advanced technologies.”

Chief Executive of Booth Brothers, Charles Booth said:

“Being amongst the first installations to be accredited under the Renewable Heat Incentive is very satisfying for Booth Brothers in terms of developing our strategic target of carbon neutral for our Bullhouse Mill site and eco-umbrella factory. Last year our Old Corn Mill offices were commended for their eco rating and we generate electricity from two wind turbines, solar panels and hydro generation so making the heat we use low carbon was naturally the next step.”

Owner of Broadgate Farm Cottages, Elaine Robinson said:

“We don’t have mains gas and the price of oil and LPG is very expensive so when we decided to develop the holiday cottages a ground source heat pump was the most economically attractive in the long term, especially with the Renewable Heat Incentive. This is the first of our applications to be approved.”

Currently around half of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the energy used to produce heat - more than from generating electricity. The RHI will reduce emissions by 44 million tonnes of carbon to 2020, equivalent to the annual carbon emitted by 20 typical new gas power stations.

Over 95% of heat in the UK is currently produced by burning fossil fuel but with North Sea supplies now in decline leading to an increase in imports, low carbon alternatives are needed.


Notes to editors:

  1. The first two accreditations were made by Ofgem E-serve, which administrates the RHI scheme on behalf of Government.
  2. The Booth Brothers installation supplies offices which are heated by underfloor heating using water heated by the 24kW water source heat pump accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS), and with an efficiency above that required by the RHI. It has been accredited under the ‘small commercial heat pumps’ tariff(1) of 4.5p / Kilowatt-hour (kWh) and receive quarterly payments(2) for a twenty year period(3).
  3. The Broadgate Farm Cottages has installed a 4.3kW ground source heat pump which has been accredited under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS) with an efficiency above that required by the RHI. It supplies space heating and hot water. The heat output is measured by an appropriate heat meter. It has been accredited under the ‘small commercial heat pumps’ tariff of 4.5p / Kilowatt-hour (kWh) and receive quarterly payments for a twenty year period.
  4. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) opened for applications on Monday 28 November 2011. It is the first financial support scheme for renewable heat of its kind in the world. It aims to help the UK reduce carbon emissions and hit its EU renewable energy targets through the provision of incentive payments to eligible generators of renewable heat and producers of biomethane.
  5. The RHI tariffs will be paid for 20 years to eligible technologies that have installed since 15th July 2009 with payments being made for each kWh of renewable heat which is produced. Once in the scheme the level of support an installation will receive is fixed and adjusted annually with inflation.

(1) For heat pumps with an installed capacity less than 100 Kilowatts-thermal (kWth)
(2) Based on metered heat generation
(3) Providing they continue to be eligible for this period

Published 6 January 2012