In conjunction with Citizens Advice the Big Energy Week campaign was officially launched on Monday 16^th of January at the House of Commons.  Chris Huhne, the Rt Hon Caroline Flint MP and Gillian Guy of Citizens Advice all took part in the official launch of the scheme which this year is backed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change.

“Many people could cut their gas and electricity bills by moving to a better deal with their existing supplier, switching to another supplier altogether or by taking up home insulation offers.” stated Huhne.

This kind of initiative demonstrates the government’s intentions to help out with the reduction of energy bills for consumers and measures such as home insulation will certainly help consumers fight these rising fuel costs.  These kinds of improvements will help create energy efficient homes which will enable any homeowners installing microgeneration to get the best performance out of their technologies.  Big Energy Week is therefore aiming to save consumers money and prepare the UK’s homes for the rise of decentralised energy.

You can find out more about Big Energy Week at the following websites:

• Big Energy Week[External link]
  Citizens Advice Big Energy Week website
• Which?[External link]
  Webchat on Which? website 18 January 2012
• Consumer Energy Summit
  The Consumer Energy Summit summary page on the DECC website

Tom Higgins

While the Government sticks to it’s line that by reducing the FIT from 43p per kilowatt-hour to 21p would ensure the longevity of the scheme, the CBI said the decision to halve “feed-in tariffs” earlier than planned would force companies to cancel planned work destroying projects and jobs

According to CBI director general, Jonathan Cridland: “Moving the goal posts doesn’t just destroy projects and jobs, it creates a mood of uncertainty that puts off investors and they wonder what’s coming next.”

“Some companies have invested heavily in solar photovoltaic systems and in the supply chains needed to install them.

“That commitment has been undermined by the feed-in tariff decision – and so industry trust and confidence in the government has evaporated. This bodes poorly for investment in future initiatives.”

DECC are under fire from all quarters ranging from business pressure groups, industry leaders and even facing legal challenges from Friends of the Earth over the reductions, however they insist the changes are necessary to protect the longer-term interests of the industry.

“If we left things as they are,” said one of their spokespeople, ”the feed-in tariff budget would be eaten up entirely, full stop, and that would be even worse for employees in this sector and those working on other technologies too.

“We believe solar photovoltaic can have a strong and vibrant future in UK and we are proposing changes to ensure a lasting feed-in tariffs scheme to support that future.”

The solar industry remains unconvinced so DECC will no doubt continue to face many challenges to the policy over the coming months.

While the document noted that the proposed new tariffs were currently “under consultation and are not final”, the figure is in line with earlier speculation that the amount of subsidy would be substantially reduced.

A Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) spokesman said: “We’ll be publishing a full consultation on changes to the solar PV tariff changes in parliament on Monday. The Energy Saving Trust inadvertently published a draft of documentation on its website that was neither final nor accurate.”

The government are looking at the new tariffs having found that the global cost of solar PV panels has fallen significantly since the scheme started, meaning generators were seeing returns of around 10% on their investment, far higher than originally intended and solar companies are absorbing some of the extra profits.

Should the tariff levels be reduced to the new levels, the scheme would be aiming for 4% annual return on investment which still compares favourably with the returns available on various other types of financial investment.

The paper by GL Garrad Hassan – the world’s largest renewable energy consultancy – suggests by focusing on renewable energy and energy efficiency, the UK could drastically reduce carbon emissions without resorting to new nuclear reactors.

The report suggested that between 60% and 90% of UK electricity demand could be met by the clean technologies by 2030 – substantially more ambitious than the 40% figure set out by Committee on Climate Change -  through improved energy efficiency and better power connections to Europe, also reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and cutting the need for nuclear development or new technologies such as carbon capture.

The Green Deal will revolutionise the energy efficiency of the nation’s homes and businesses. It will help people insulate against rising energy prices, creating homes which are warmer and cheaper to run

• Remove the upfront cost of energy efficiency measures (like loft, cavity and external wall insulation, draught proofing and energy efficiency glazing and boilers) making expensive home improvement affordable. With the energy saving work will be repaid over time through a charge on the home’s energy bill. The repayments must obey a “golden rule” whereby the charge is no more than the expected savings, meaning householders should save from day one.
• Put consumer protection at the heart of the Green Deal. High standards will be crucial from the first independent home energy assessment to getting the job done by qualified installers. All Green Deal participants will need to carry a “quality mark” so customers know they can be trusted to do a good job.
• Provide extra financial help for the most vulnerable and hardest to treat homes by getting energy companies to fund work like basic insulation and boiler upgrades as well as helping those living in homes where the cost of the work, like solid wall insulation, may not obey the “golden rule” without extra money to make it affordable.
• Improve at least 682,000 privately rented homes. From April 2018 it will be unlawful to rent out a house or business premise which has less than an “E” energy efficiency rating.

A new fact file has been published by DECC which setting out how energy use in homes in Great Britain has evolved since 1970.

The summit, which included representatives from the big six energy companies, consumer groups and watchdog Ofgem, was held by the PM and Energy Secretary Chris Huhne in order to try and head off further increases in energy prices this Winter.

While some industry watchers were hoping for a stronger approach, the message from the summit was that the responsibility for saving on energy still lies very much with the consumer.

However, various measures agreed during the summit will hopefully help the average energy customer make some savings:

• The energy suppliers will write to some 8.8million customers to tell them how to switch payment methods, find lower tariffs and insulate their homes to save energy.
•  4 million of the most vulnerable energy customers will receive letters telling them they are eligible for free or heavily discounted insulation to their loft or cavity walls
• Suppliers will be required to improve billing, including ways to save money and putting details of any cheaper tariffs that may be available
• The time taken to switch suppliers will be limited to 3 weeks.

The PM also pledged that energy companies would be “permanently watched” to make sure they’re being competitive.

After the summit, the Government claimed they had won significant concessions that should see customers shaving their bills.

Chris Huhne said: “Obviously not everything is agreed, but I do think we have got a very substantial measure of agreement and we can go forward to this winter with some confidence that we can get people switching more.”

The issue of sustainability is not currently viewed as important to property market value, however a new report from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) suggests that this is changing and where a home has more “sustainability” features this should be reflected in the property’s valuation.

Sustainability features can include a home’s energy efficiency rating, the materials used in its construction and other features such as an energy-efficient boiler or renewable energy installation.

Sustainability is also moving progressively higher up the coalition government’s agenda and it is increasingly likely that sustainability will likewise become more important in the residential housing market. 

Although the market doesn’t always take the issue of sustainability into account, RICS believes with the increased emphasis on green living and energy efficiency, the market will follow suit.

But Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne has also today warned the ‘Big 6’ energy suppliers that they are at risk of missing the Government’s tough home energy efficiency targets and need to double their insulation rates.

“More than £100 can be knocked off your bill if you get your loft lagged and cavity walls filled and thanks to tough government targets for the Big 6 energy companies, consumers can get free or discounted insulation.

 “But these stats also show that energy companies need to pull their finger out and get on with offering even more energy saving help to British households. The companies have made good progress to date and we want them to succeed, but they are going to have to accelerate their lagging rates if they’re each going to hit their targets by the end of the next year.”

It is estimated that companies will have to double their monthly professionally installed insulation rate from the average 100,000 a month seen since last year to some 200,000 if they are to meet the insulation target of 3.5million homes by December 2012 set out by the increased Carbon Emissions Reduction Target.

The latest statistics show that as part of the CERT scheme, there has been:

A 21% increase in the number of professionally installed insulation compared with the same quarter last year.

13% more DIY loft insulation installed compared with the same quarter last year.

Research carried out last month by OnePoll of 2,000 people revealed a myriad of reasons homeowners give for failing to insulate their homes.

Fifteen per cent did not know how to go about insulating their homes, while nine per cent had too much clutter in the loft to install lagging. Three per cent cited the lack of a ladder as a major hurdle.

Eon has estimated that the average home could save up to £390 a year by installing cavity wall and loft insulation, but 17 per cent of respondents said they couldn’t afford to insulate their home.

The government is hoping that its Green Deal energy efficiency loan scheme will encourage more people to insulate their homes when it is launched next year.

The deal will attach the payback to a property’s energy bill in an attempt to reduce the upfront costs of installing efficiency measures.

DECC is also launching a series of trials this month with DIY retailers, local authorities and utilities to see whether it can “nudge” people into using less energy.